ENL Hike to SandStone Peak

Embedded Networks Laboratory (ENL) at USC where I did my PhD with Prof. Ramesh Govindan. ENL has a tradition of an annual outing each summer. This was the year it started. Om - an enthusiastic hiker who has under his belt several very inspiring and difficult climbs listed out a bunch of possible hikes for this outing. Ofcourse top of his list were hikes from which some of us could not hope to make it back safely. After quite some negotiations we decided on a hike to Sandstone Peak. We started in the morning from ENL. The hike starts off of the Pacific Coast Highway on the Yerba Buena Road in Malibu.

The hike was planned to be about 6hrs long, however, the entire hike turned out to be much longer that expected as Om led us on ot newer places. We first hiked to Exchange peak and had lunch there. The views from Exchange peak were fantastic. We spent about an hour there walking around and looking at the amazing sights.

From exchange peak we hiked towards the Sandstone peak. The hike to sandstone peak were quite spectacular. Exchange peak was not too far from Sandstone peak and it did not take us too long to climb up there. We refreshed ourselves with some snacks and water to take a break before the next piece of hike.

There were some rock climbers along the way that we caught sight of and watched them as they climbed up the steep rocks.

Ofcourse Om was not entirely satisfied yet, though most of us were. He suggested we hike to some other peak and we agreed. This was quite a strenous piece of hike and I think we got lost, though Om will never agree and keep insisting that he knew all along where we were going. By the time we got out of wilderness we were off from our parking spot by over a mile or two. Some of us even got cramps during this later part of the hike.

It was great first outing for ENL and the tradition continued in the following years to come.