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Hike to Murrieta Falls - 28 Feb 2009

This weekend should have been a backpacking weekend but it got cancelled because of the rain that was forecast for Sunday. The initial plan was to hike the Ohlone Wilderness Trail from Lake Del Valle to Rose Peak on the first day, spend the night at Maggie's Half Acre, and go down to Sunol's visitor center on the second day. 10 miles each day.
Instead, we decided to hike from Lake Del Valle to Murrieta Falls, and come back, which would be about 12 miles with about 4500 feet of elevation gain. No backpacking but still a pretty decent hike.

There were 6 of us (Fizzymagic who organized the trip, Calipidder, Drunken Marmot, Bthomas, Kendrah and me). We started shortly after 9 am.

To get to the Fall, we mostly had to climb two ridges: Rocky Ridge first, then go down about 600 feet to William Gulch, and then climb up Big Burn to Rowell Ridge. Both ridges were climbed at a relatively high pace and almost without any break. For sure, had I done this hike solo, I would have stopped every 300 feet. But it was good to feel challenged a little more than usual.

I really liked Rocky Ridge. The views were beautiful, and the shooting stars (wild flowers) abundant. We grabbed a cache on one of the hilltops before going down to the gulch We didn't break at William Gulch and instead, we directly attacked the Big Burn climb. It was tough, especially with the lack of breaks, but it allowed us to be over with the climb relatively quickly. Reaching the top of Big Burn felt very nice. The views were breathtaking. This ridge was totally dwarfing the Rocky Ridge that we had climbed earlier. We had great views of Mount Diablo, Brushy Peak, Livermore, Pleasanton Ridge, Monument/Allison/Mission Peaks, and as a bonus, the Sierra Nevada with its snowy tops.

The terrain on Rowell Ridge was mostly gently rolling hills. We quickly reached the top of the falls and while Fizzymagic stayed there to snap a few pictures, we climbed down to get the cache there. We also took a nice lunch break close to the water pool. The fall is not spectacular in itself, it's mostly just a tiny creek flowing between rocks,but it was a beautiful and relaxing setting.
Climbing out of this little secluded heaven was tough. There was a a path but it was still 100 feet (almost vertical) to climb.

We then hiked in some more up to get to a few other caches. Our turn around point was at 8 miles in. We were 7 miles from the trailhead, and had climbed 4000 feet so we knew we would be tired very soon (we still had about 1000 feet to climb). Bthomas and Kendrah decided to go for Rose Peak so only 4 of us were going back.

Walking back to the top of Big Burn was pretty easy even though we were tired at this point. I found the climb down Big Burn very difficult. I thought my legs would just stop working at any time. We climbed it down at a fast pace with no break. I really wished it would go up instead of down as every step was painful. Once we reached the bottom (William Gulch), we took a good break that my legs appreciated.

We still had to get out of that canyon, to the top of Rocky Ridge before another painful climb down to the trailhead. This last climb up was challenging for Fizzymagic and for me. But we took it very slow, one step after the other and we made it to the top of the ridge before we knew it. One last climb down, very difficult for the legs after so much hiking, and we were back at the trailhead.

In the end, we hiked 15 miles with about 5000 feet of elevation. As Calipidder mentioned somewhere, it's similar to going down to the Colorado River from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, and back up in the same day.
The weather was perfect for this. It was comfortably cool, it didn't rain on us, and most importantly there was no mud.

I really enjoyed the hike, the park, the views, and the company. I spent an awesome day. The only thing that could have made it better was to have actually backpacked to Sunol but that will be for another time. I really want to go back there again, backpacking this time. And the crazy me doesn't want to just go from Del Valle to Sunol. I am seriously thinking about hiking the full 28 miles of the Ohlone Trail, and this includes climbing up Mission Peak.

Many thanks to Fizzymagic for organizing such a great outing!

My photos are here.
Calipidder's photos are here.

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Hiking to Willson Peak - Henry Coe SP - 21 Feb 2009

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.

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Harvey Bear Ranch - 07 Feb 2009

This morning, I was supposed to do some volunteer work for the County Parks and then maybe do a short hike in Coyote Lake - Harvey Bear Ranch County Park.
Because of a misunderstanding, I could not find the group and decided to spend the morning hiking. I never heard of this park before so I thought it would be a great opportunity to just explore it.

It was great. Quite muddy because of yesterday's rain though. Not only the mud sticks to the boots and makes each foot weights much more than usual, but it makes the trails very slippery.

The park was still green (it will dry up quickly) and I saw a few nice wild flowers. It's only the beginning of the season. Full bloom is expecting in a few weeks.
I saw many dears, turkeys, ospreys, and even one coyote that didn't seem to notice me until he was about 50 feet from me. He then ran before I had a chance to snap a picture.

I chose an ambitious route for this hike, trying to take the longest side trails. It allowed me to enjoy the various terrains and expositions. The hike ended up being 12.7 miles long, with about 2200 feet of elevation gain.

I will be sore tomorrow...

My pictures are here.

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Ladybugs hike - 01 Feb 2009

This morning, we decided to check out those "clusters" of ladybugs that many friends reported sightings of. We had the choice between several locations and we chose Purisma Creek Redwoods OSP. Even though it was not the closest place from home, we thought we could spend the whole day around Half Moon Bay after having walked to the ladybugs gathering point. After all, today was Superbowl day and the whole country would be watching, which means "no traffic". Yay!

We started following the main trail along the Purisma Creek and saw a lot of banana slugs. They were just about everywhere. I don't remember having seen that many at once. We were not sure ladybugs would still be around but other hikers confirmed they had seen them. We finally reached our destination less than a mile into the hike. Lucie noticed them first. They were everywhere, and yet, not so obvious as they were blending surprisingly well. It was a very interesting sigthing. The kids could take a good look at them (Lucie even collected a few that she later released) and we took too many pictures.

The total hike was about 1.6 miles and about 200 feet of elevation gain. Easy for kids.

We then went to downtown Half Moon Bay, had lunch at "Chez Shea", which was yummy, and headed to the beach for some wading and kite flying. The weather at the beach was awesome, although I wouldn't have minded a little bit of wind (for the kite).

We then went South, with a first stop at Pescadero for a couple of oven-hot Artichoke-Garlic bread from the Country Bakery - yummy again, and a quick stop for coffee in Davenport before checking out the Natural Bridges in Santa Cruz. While we were there, we continued driving down the Santa Cruz coast down to the lighthouse where we stopped to watch Monarch butterflies and the sunset.

What a day!

My photos are here.

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Short hike in Almaden Quicksilver - 24 Jan 2009

Last weekend, the weather was getting better on Saturday, and I decided to go for a short hike in Almaden Quicksilver (McAbee entrance, Senador mines, Guadalupe reservoir, and back using Mine Hill trail).
The grass was still wet from the week's rain and the trails were muddy at places but it was not too bad.
I was very happy to see my first poppy of the year. Yay!
The hike was a little over 5 miles, with about 1000 feet of elevation gain.

The pictures are here.

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