Yesterday was forecast to be the dry day of the weekend, so it was the hiking day. I was not too sure where to go. Climbing up Coyote Peak is all I could think of until I remembered how close to Henry Coe I was when I hiked Harvey Bear Ranch two weeks ago.A quick search online brought a map of the Hunting Hollow area, in the south part of Henry Coe SP. It seemed that climbing up Steer Ridge trail to Willson Peak and then going back down using Lyme Willson Ridge trail would make for a nice loop. Not very long, but with plenty of elevation to get some exercise.
After a relatively long drive (exit 101 between Morgan Hill and Gilroy, and then drive some more), I was at the entrance and ready to go. The map was not lying. The Steer Ridge trail starts immediately after crossing the creek, right at the entrance, and climbs straight up. It's really a ridge trail, with no switchback. The kind of Butt-kicker hike that Coe offers (I'm thinking that Big Sur can be like that too).
I saw some wildflowers (mostly the yellow pansies) here and there, but no real "carpet". It's still early in the season. I enjoyed the climb, and then the flatter part on the ridge. Great views from there. I could see Loma Prieta, Mount Hamilton with its
snow-covered top, and what I believe was the Monterey Bay. There was some snow on the Ventana Wilderness summits.The top of Willson Peak was windy. At 2651 feet (808 m), it was the highest point around and the views were great. I found the USGS Elevation benchmark and took the opportunity to calibrate my GPS. It was only 10 feet off.
Close to the summit, there was a small automated seismographic station. I hope my walking around didn't disturb the instruments.
Going down was obviously easy and quick. I only had to take a slight detour to go around a few cows (there were youngsters). There was a place along the trail where there were many many beautiful shooting stars. The trail met the bottom of the valley close to the old windmill, about 0.8 miles from the parking lot. The trail crossed the creek about 5 or 6 times in less than a mile. The water was flowing but thanks to stones carefully placed, only the bottom of my shoes got wet. Toads were performing, thousands of them, but I could not see any. I soon as I got close to a loud "rubit", it would stop. I got to see a few newts in the creek, and this is always nice.
That was a great hike (about 7.6 miles, 2200 feet of elevation gain), and most importantly, with no mud despite the heavy rain that fell last week. I definitely need to explore more of Henry Coe before it gets too hot.
My pictures are here.
Interactive tracklog:
2 comments:
Knowing you, I think you'll like Coe just fine even when it is hot. :) It's a great park
Nice loop. I really need to get out there and try that one some time. Hope I can hit it when the wildflowers peak. So many hikes, so few weekends. Sigh.
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