It was another epic day of Bay Area wilderness hiking. I joined up with a friend Mike who is not (yet?) in the Social Hiker / Peakbagger mindset, but is in better hiking shape than I am. The goal for the day was first Vista Grande to check off that Nifty90 peak. We had done the other two in the park (Maguire Peaks and Flag Hill) a few months ago, so only Vista and Rose were on today's agenda. So we went up Hayfield Rd to the barn, then up Cave Rocks to Eagle's View to Vista Grande trail to that peak. I had plugged both VG and Rose into AllTrails so it confidently connected the two. I hadn't zoomed in to realize that 4 miles of that were on the asphalt of Welch Road. So we ditched that plan and hugged the property line until we intersected – many miles later – the Ohlone Wilderness Trail. Do not recommend … Next time we would have come back to Eagle's View and Cave Rocks and cut over on McCorkle. Our “short cut” probably saved some distance but was confusing and required a few fence hops, one of which lost Mike his driver's license. If found, please contact :).

Anyway, once safely on the Wilderness Trail, it was a steady up and up to Rose. Ran into one ex-Six Pack'r who, upon brief conversation on his way back from the peak, considered rejoining this year after ticking Rose off the list. Indeed this is probably the toughest to get to (this, or Sizer) so why not? By the time we got to Rose it was about 12.5 miles with our wandering route, and 4.5 hours. Ended the day at 21 miles and 7:20 hours. No fear of the heat descending on this journey. We could see our breath at the peak, and the wind was a pretty consistent 10-20 mph. All in all a great day that left me pretty wiped, but thankful for the great views and nearly-human-free wilderness. 5 down 1 to go!