J and A's Excellent Adventure

Sabercat creek Trail is a hidden gem of open space in Fremont, California (Sabercat Creek Trail). It is located at Paseo Padre Parkway and Quema Drive and is a paved, ADA compliant multi-use trail that is family friendly and good for walking and biking. Quite a bit of the trail is shaded. In the 1940's numerous fossils were found in this area including mammoths, saber toothed cats, mastodons, wolves, and giant sloths.

The trail follows sabercat creek, with riparian foliage and views of Mission Peak. In terms of wildlife, I have spotted turkeys, lizards, and deer. Blackberry bushes also grow alongside the creek.

Entrance to the trail at Paseo Padre Parkway and Quema Drive (Photo from Google Maps)

View of Mission Peak from Sabercat Creek Trail.

Wild turkeys near Sabercat Creek Trail.

View of Sabercat Creek trail.

GPS track (in red) of a walk along Sabercat Creek Trail.

Elevation profile of walk along Sabercat Creek Trail.

On Andreas' birthday we went on a walk in the alps with Andreas' family. We hiked up (and up) and took the gondola down. The view from the top was awesome. Andreas' brother used to hike up this path in the winter and then ski down. We prefer taking the gondola :).

Above: Near the top it got really steep and we hiked up ladders to get over the rock.

Above: Views from the top!

Above: View from the Gondola on the way down.

The GPS track of our hike, elevation profile, and statistics are below. We hiked up 1176 meters (or 3858 feet).

Above: View from below. A gondola tower is visible in this photo and also the restaurant on the top.

Kastelruth, Italy was our home base for visiting the Unesco World Natural Heritage Dolomites (Dolomites). The dolomites reminded us of Yosemite on steroids.

Kastelruth is a quaint town that had stunning views of the Dolomites and even though it is technically in Italy the native language, signs and food were German in accordance with its Austrian history.

Above: Juliette in front of our hotel with a sculpture and views of the dolomites. The view from our hotel room with some dolomites in the background.

Above: Views of Kastelruth and the dolomites in the background.

We took a side trip to visit Ötzi the Iceman (Iceman) in Bolzano, Italy. No photos were allowed in the museum, but this is a very interesting and worthwhile trip. The parking garage had LED lights that were "red" if a car was already parked in the spot our "green" if the spot was free.

Our hotel offered a free "easy" guided mountain bike tour of the Seiser Alm meadow. We decided that "easy" in the Italian alps is a bit different than "easy" in SF.

Juliette with our guide Andreas.

Above: Photos from our mountain bike ride including a section along a river near some geysers and a stop over for lunch at a hut.

Above: The other way to get around is by carriage!

Above: Our gps track and elevation profile for the bike ride. We covered a large part of the Seiser Alm.

The weather cleared nicely for our hike the next day to the Witches Benches (Hexebånke). We saw astounding views of the dolomites and the photos look like they should be in a calendar!