On Monday evening, M and I went to Coyote Lake-Harvey Bear Ranch County Park, which is on the eastern edge of San Martin, a tiny community sandwiched between Gilroy and Morgan Hill, as you can see in the following illustration...

For those who are accuracy-inclined, here is a more traditional map...

While M went for a run on the Martin Murphy Trail (a flat, paved loop trail, roughly two-miles long), I went for the briefest of hikes. Due to the lateness of the hour (it was nearly 4:30), M planned to only run four miles, which meant I had approximately 45 minutes to hike.

Since I knew I couldn't go far, I decided to do an out-and-back on the Harvey Bear Trail. In my head, I budgeted my time -- 25 minutes out, 20 minutes back, taking into account that "out" was all uphill.

I didn't have much time, but I tried to make the most of the time I had. This largely involved stopping often to admire the view and photograph the trees, hills, and horizon.

I got so caught up admiring and photographing, I overran my budgeted minutes. It was 5:00 and the light was fading quickly. I turned around and rushed down the trail. Halfway back, I spied the last of the sun dipping below the horizon.

I got back to parking lot just as M was finishing her run. The timing worked out perfectly. Now we just have work on getting there earlier so we have more time to enjoy the park.

To see a few additional photos, you can always visit Flickr.