Trip Report: Mission Peak Dayhike

Mission Peak from the Stanford Ave. trailhead parking lot, Fremont, CA.
Rumored to have amazing views, I've wanted to hike Mission Peak for a while. So after watching Obama's inauguration, and being a mostly clear, warm January day, I headed down to Fremont for a butt-kicker of a hike. Just before reaching the trailhead, I stopped to enjoy a western bacon cheeseburger guilt free (one of my favorite guilty pleasures) as I knew I would definitely be burning it off on this one. Dayhike Stats: Date: January 20, 2009, Inauguration Day Location: Fremont, CA, Mission Peak Regional Preserve Mileage: ~6.3 mi round trip Elevation: +/-2100'; lo pt 378'; hi pt 2,517' Trailhead: end of Stanford Ave., Fremont TH Lat/Long.: 37.50419998, -121.908493 TH Facilities: toilet, water fountain, picnic table Trails Hiked: Hidden Valley Trail, Peak Trail Route Type: up and back Trail Terrain: steep double track/fire road with gravel; rocky near top; rated strenuous. Why go?: 360° views; oak savanna/grassland; ground squirrels galore, coyote, birds of prey; dogs allowed (pick up poo bags please); Plenty of benches with views along route. Caveats: cows = muddy when wet; popular = people & trash (pack it out!); 2100' elev. gain in 3 miles = strenuous; gravel on a steep grade = slippery Official Website: EBRPD Mission Peak Regional Preserve View the photo album.
	Coyote looking for a meal.
Invasion of the Ground Squirrels & One Coyote I've never seen so many ground squirrels in my life. There were hundreds and that is no exaggeration. They were chirping and chasing and digging—doing squirrel work. Near the summit I saw a hunting coyote stalking the plentiful ground squirrel prey. Thankfully I didn't see him actually eat any, but I was hoping he scored a delectable dinner eventually.
	The artifacts of a consumer culture.
Trashy Lazy People On the hike up, I noticed an inordinate amount of plastic water bottle and orange peel discards. At a semi-flat spot just below the peak there were these two trash cans overflowing with plastic garbage. There was also plastic garbage strewn about the summit. It's sad and maddening that people find it acceptable to trash such a beautiful place. What's worse is that they carried this stuff up the hill full. They can't carry it back down empty thus lighter? I realize some of the offending parties who normally wouldn't litter felt entitled to use the trash cans, even though filled way beyond capacity, just because they were there, and hey, we are tax payers and some "public servant" is going to come up here and clean up after us right? Well I picked up and carried out several bottles begrudgingly, as I feel litter bugs should be forced to wallow in their own filth, but unfortunately they are already deep in it and are so oblivious they don't realize it. Where is Woodsy Owl when you need him?
	Me standing with the flag on Mission Peak which is not the actual peak.
The Peak is Not The Peak The actual peak of Mission Peak is not the flag pictured above. It is the lump behind me in the photo. While standing next to the flag, I noticed that the hump behind me was higher so I went exploring. There is a surveyor's mark and a little hand made sign consisting of a sawed railroad tie and nails acting as text. The few people that were up there when I was just went to the flag and then off they marched back down the hill. I didn't realize it at the time, but the metal post thing with the funny pipes sticking out of it that the flag is attached to actually points out landmarks. I'll have to see if there is a key. The metal post has numbers so somewhere there has to be an explanation.
	My shadow and the official(?) railroad tie and nail sign marker for Mission Peak.
(Topographic map of my route. Click for a larger view.)