Mission Peak, early morning hike, Fremont CA. 08/01/2015

Summary

Location: Mission Peak regional park, Fremont California
Date & Time: 08/01/2015 06:00 AM
Distance: 7.80 miles
Duration: 3 hours 20 minutes
Difficulty (1-5): 2, i have done this hike many time but never in the early morning and that made it so much easier without the hot sun
Official web page: http://www.ebparks.org/parks/mission

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Story

View from the peak

I have been writing about this hike before but this time was the first time i did it in the early morning, and doing this climb in the early sunrise is so much different than otherwise so i just have to write another story.

The alarm went off at 04:15 AM and i woke up my wife and daughter to get some breakfast before doing the 30 minute drive to mission peak park in Fremont. This was the first time my daughter was gonna join us for this hike and she wanted to do it to see the sunrise and we were definitely not hard to convince. 

Since the Ohlone college entrance opens at 06:00 AM while the entrance from Stanford avenue opens 06:30 we decided to try that trail for the first time. We found a good free street parking close to the entrance and were at the park entrance at 06:00 AM. This trail is a little bit longer than the Stanford but on the other hand it is not so steep. Also some parts of the trail here are through some tree areas that gives it a little bit more different appearances.

Walking up through the clouds

After walking for about 45 minutes we reached the clouds, all of the sudden it become cold and the visibility dropped to only a few hundred feet.

While walking through the clouds there was almost no visibility

Through the clouds and this wonderful sun smiled at us

At the end of the clouds the sun finally started to show up and it was an amazing sight that i have never experienced like that before. It was so wonderful to see it break through the clouds, and i have never seen it look so huge.

Magic feeling

Above the clouds

 If you have never been up here in the sunrise you have to try it, it is amazing in all kind of ways. I could have posted hundred of photos. 

View towards the peak

Almost religious to see this

Wife and daughter at the peak

We reached the peak after about 1 hour and 45 minutes hiking in slow speed. I was amazed by my daughter that did a great job to get up there without hardly any complains. But i can promise that she loved the experience doing this.

I haven't mentioned so much details about the hike but if you want to read more details about Mission Peak you can read it from another blog post here: http://hikinginbayarea.blogspot.se/2015/06/mission-peak-regional-park-fremont-ca.html

BTW this was the final preparation before heading up to climb Mount Shasta in four days :)