Gratuitous hiking shots

So, my group at work has an annual summit to discuss what we're going to work on in the coming year. We brainstorm, we laugh, we get to see a couple of our remote employees who work at home in other timezones, we compliment the size of each others' dictionaries. It's a geeky good time. I look forward to it every year.

Well, we do this summit for 3 days, with the 3rd day set aside for an "offsite", which is just a teambuilding day. In the past we've taken a cooking class, taken a merlot blending course in the wine caves at Rutherford Hill, and had a generally drunken hilarious time playing Hyperbowl in the arcade at the Metreon (sadly, this great arcade has been replaced with I don't know what, but it sure ain't what it used to be).

Given the economic climate, we decided it might be a better idea to do some volunteer work and then have lunch together. I contacted the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy and we're going to be doing some trail maintenance at Muir Woods, followed by lunch at a restaurant not yet determined because seriously, have you ever tried to get 13 people to agree on somewhere to eat a lunch they're not paying for?

Well. This is turning out to be a long story.

So, after I arranged that, I started clicking around on the GGNPC website. The page for Muir Woods listed another suggested place to hike that has redwoods and is nowhere near as congested as Muir Woods: the Phleger Estate in San Mateo County.

The Phleger Estate is in Woodside, actually, home of Neil Young and Steve Jobs. The house itself is still a private residence, so you can't go there. However, the woods around it are absolutely wildly beautiful. You enter the national park from a hiking trail in Huddart County Park, which is really cool as well.

Anyway, here are some shots from the iPhone.