The Barely Legal COVID Hike

Mt. Umunhum is in an open space preserve and with all the CA state parks virtually shut down, this was the only legal Norcal Peak that’s still doable…barely. The trail is a wide well maintained and graded single-track. It’s just wide enough, if challenging, to maintain enough social distancing by stepping off whenever I encountered other hikers. Fortunately, there were few. The weather was perfect and the trail was dry, but in various sections, there were swarms of gnats that like to bite.

I used this hike as training for backpacking with a pack weight of 35 lbs on the way up and 24 on the decent. I had a gallon jug of water for ballast that I dumped out at the top before starting back down (no sense in stressing my joints).

I have a touch of asthma left over from what I suspect was a mild bout of the COVID back in February, but I maintained a good pace making the out and back hike in 3.5 hours. Even if we can’t get up to the mountains in 2020, it’s still necessary to train. I feel a little like a back-up quarterback that has to be ready, but may never go in the game.