Kate Bradshaw

 _{The Ohlone Wilderness Regional Trail is a 28-mile trail between Fremont and Livermore. Photo by Kate Bradshaw.}

Here’s what two sisters discovered on a three-day, 28-mile trek through the Ohlone Regional Wilderness Trail

By Kate Bradshaw

July 15, 2022

“Next time I invite you to go backpacking with me, please remind me of this moment and why we hate backpacking,” I groggily told my sister, Molly.

Molly holds the record among my three younger siblings for being the most likely to join me on outdoor adventures — albeit begrudgingly. I had dragged Molly, whose preferred pronouns are they/them, on a last-minute backpacking trip to hike the Ohlone Regional Wilderness Trail over a three-day weekend after canceling other plans because of COVID. 

We had just spent a night in the wilderness that had involved, on my end, not sleeping as much as closing my eyes for extended periods of time and shivering on the cold ground. (Molly had forgotten their sleeping pad on this journey, and in an effort to spread the misery around and get them to come back for future adventures, I’d agreed to give up the pad for the night.)

With hips, shoulders and backs already aching, we packed up and got going on our longest day yet. We were less than halfway through the 28-mile trek from Fremont to Livermore, and by our third and final day, we were both sore and smelly. Worst of all, we still had 16 miles to go.

Full story here.