Short Pyramid by John Pasmore

Quick hike, got out of City with good friend (@nimanyc) to Pyramid Mountain (hill). Was looking for something fast and this fit. It’s sometimes a challenge to get good info on hikes though a stop at EMS, Tent Trails or REI can add helpful human perspective. I went with the Web.

I like the App Oh Ranger that certainly shows what’s close and a couple of sites like MountainZone.com and LocalHikes.com can give some color on what to expect. In any event, the goal was/is simply to get out more. Will find the “perfect” hike at some point I’m sure. A step in that direction is to head out with the good folks at OutdoorBound.com who making getting out of the City easy, pushing the whole experience toward perfection. Yesterday we Zip-car’d it to Pyramid and that cost about the same as an Outdoor Bound day trip.

Not a big gear-fest type hike — day hike/small mis-named hill was not very demanding. Got to break in an old pair of Raichle boots (now a part of Mammut) that I don’t use much. Went out to CES and picked up the simple phone solution SmartSleeves that’s an easy way to keep your smart-phone smart and dry. But didn’t need those as we saw only very occasional flurry.

My iPhone GPS app of choice, iTopoMaps, was replaced by Google Earth for the day as their Topo quad/map for this one section of the country had a “hole” in it so was useless though not needed. Was probably in the 20’s temp-wise so we didn’t stop for lunch — did the loop in about 3 hours — probably 5-6 miles (with a few wrong turns).

For a 40 minute drive was good to get out and is one way to have extended uninterrupted conversation while replacing crowds and cabs with trees. For a few hours.