Had a wonderful downhill walk through dense redwoods (not our giant ones) from Redwood Estate to Scott's Valley. Then for the last half (after Scott's Valley) the path was on old roads that paralleled the State 17. Santa Cruz greeted me with some pretty warm weather!

The mission, founded in1791 as the 12th, has a colorful and violent history--much too lengthy to even touch on here. The original mission stood where today's Holy Cross Catholic Church stands. In 1931, a Gladys Doyle proposed and funded a half-size replica of the original mission--see the pics below.

22 miles first along the Los Gatos Creek Trail, over nine miles of opportunities for walkers, cyclists, jobbers, and you name it (even saw a unicycle) to huff and puff. There were hundreds, maybe more. Then came the uphill part crossing over the Santa Cruz Mountains, part of our coastal range. I huffed and puffed up 2200 ft--grueling but amazingly beautiful scenery. After 12 hours on the road, I got permission from some tenants on a Christmas tree farm to pitch my tent. It was a balmy, starry , and full-moon lit night near 12-foot tall trees ready to adorn some spacious living rooms--it was magical. Although mountain lions share this habitat with humans, none came to visit. My last line of defense was a high-powered night light I intended to move quickly from side to side and make lots of noise--surely that would have so confused the animal, it would have gone after a less confounding meal!

Here's the pic of Mission Santa Clara:

Arrived at Mission Santa Clara at a bit after 3:00pm (17 mi). Beautiful mission and on top of that they had a wedding going on. After spending some time in he mission thinking of its beauty, I read about its history. First mission to be named after a woman! And this mission became Jesuit later on promising to found a school and thus it sits in the middle of Santa Clara University today.

Am staying with Claudia's cousin, Kevin , and his wife Diane--lovely family. A big BBQ is scheduled.

Day 6 led me to the departure from the Camino Real in Mountain View where I stayed at a cozy motel just across 101 from Moffett Field. It was all familiar from our days at Lockheed Martin and living in Sunnyvale.

Day 7, according to Siri, was only going to be 12 miles, but turned out to be another 20, just like day 6. Today and parts of yesterday took me past companies rooted in the lore of Silicon Valley: Google, AMD, Dell, Juniper Systems, Lockheed Martin, on and on.

At 2:00 pm Claudia joined me to tour Mission San Jose--nice museum, but little there from the original mission founded in1797. This 14th mission was totally destroyed by the great earthquake of 1868. The photos of the current church are of a reconstruction in the 1970s.

Although only 10 miles into the day and while resting at a Starbucks, I am recharging along the way with all the humor I see-it's everywhere! A shoe in the middle of the Camino Real, obviously it had try to flee its owner's dastardly tortures, gets hit by a car; a front door to an office suite marked Magrittelike, "This is not an entrance"; and then there's the whole thing about the "moral compass app," whose existence is being denied on signs on top of taxis. Oh, it's a great world we live in--humor--the ultimate natural additiction!

How thrilling to walk the king's road itself! I picked up THE Camino Real as I left San Bruno, but seem to have gotten caught between motel clumps. They aren't uniformly distributed, meaning that I had to walk more than 25 miles to get to the next "clump."

My two favorite sites along the way are on these pics (the bust of Fra Serra is at St Mathews Church in San Mateo).

After a good visit with the daughters and their families, I rode the ferry back to Sausalito to continue the walk through historic Fort Baker. After a climb up to the Golden Gate Bridge (which celebrated its 75th BD), I crossed it in the early morning fog (see photo) and passed through historic Presidio. Lots of memories (e.g., in a hospital here as a teenager and commissioned in the US Army by the Presidio). Mission Dolores is the only one standing as it originally did--rather incredible! Several pics are of Presidio.

Great walk, but because of a few routing issues, I walked about 5 miles extra needlessly. So when I arrived in Sausalito I had already clocked over 20 miles, and ended up taking the ferry to San Francisco, now staying with Chris/Douglas for the night. Much of the walk was on roads with narrow shoulders-the pic below says it all.

Cushy day; only 14.6 miles to the mission and a Starbucks just down the street. Still need to find a motel--there are lots within a mile. I found Mission San Rafael hustling and bustling with Sunday mass and many baptisms. Nothing stands of the old mission--it was torn down in 1861. The mission replica was built in 1949 with Hearst money.

Today's church:

Grueling but great day. I walked over 20 miles, and on top of that, a fellow gave me a ride for a mile and a half. Had to accept, I was starting to melt down.

All motels are booked because of the car races! I'm camping out within the shadow of the motel, but not on their property.

Lovely mission, grape picking is at its peak, limos by the hundreds are on the highway with their clients, and very warm for the first day of fall. Check out the pics.

Check out this card--yes, I consider myself encouraged and believed in!

More adventures on the training route: a stop at our local mushroom factory.

Only four more training days left. On my walk this morning I spotted the Ventura Keys BBQ--still early and not too much action. Check out this photo.

Just had a great 8-mile walk. Only four more days of training left. On Friday, 9/21 I'll be driving up to the Bay Area.

A 12-mile walk today from our La Mesa house to the San Diego Zoo--exhausting, but convincing me that I'm making progress with my training. Here's a pic of me from our deck.

Equipment has been ordered: new ultralight sleeping bag, tent, and a new backpack (my old one died after the third Camino). This morning I took a short walk from our Ventura Harbor to the house. Have a look at the picture.

Had a great 9-mile walk from the awesomest mission of all--Mission San Buenaventura. Check out these pics.

Hellish--walked 20 plus miles. Everything is sore. Experimented with iPhone postings.