Detour in the Cloud-Soaked Woods

February 5, 2017

Our trail map for the day: https://www.sccgov.org/sites/parks/parkfinder/Documents/SanbornGuideMap.pdf

a forest glen in Sanborn County Park

We love hiking in the winter, when all is green and the air is cool and misty. But this can also happen: Our trail for the day, the John Nicholas trail, was closed due to several washouts from the recent rainstorms. The ranger told us that it would not be repaired until the area dries up. It didn't take too long to decide to hike anyway, so we took a detour in Sanborn County Park.

The trail leads up through the redwoods, oaks, madrone and other trees. The moss on the rocks was as green and lush as it could be from all the wetness. The low clouds swirled around us and only once let us catch a glimpse of the Bay from the trail.

We hiked in good company. Ket, Buddy (the dog), Diane, Richard and David joined us. We hiked a 4.5 mile loop, which paralleled the official Bay Ridge Trail. Sometime we'd like to come back to hike the John Nicholas trail. Our route went up the Sanborn Trail and looped around on the San Andreas Trail.

Next week we will complete the whole circumnavigation of the Bay! We saved the Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve for our last hike on the Bay Ridge Trail. Please join us! We leave the parking lot on Hicks Road and head up the Woods Trail at 10 am, Sunday Feb 12th. Cake and bubbly drinks will be served at 4 pm at the other end of the 12 mile hike, at the Priest Rock Trailhead on Alma Bridge Road in Lexington Co. Park.

Two Creeks and a Very Green County Park

January 28, 2017

Santa Teresa County Park

Trails used on this leg:

http://ridgetrail.org/penitencia-creek
http://ridgetrail.org/santa-teresa-county-park-and-los-alamitos-calero-creek-trail

Donna, Richard, Ket, Buddy, and I ambled over hills and along creeks today on a sunny day between rainstorms. As we finish up our beloved Ridge Trail project, Donna and I are scheduling in our walks as efficiently as we can, which means we have deviated slightly from our original clockwise plan. Today we checked off two non-contiguous maps from the Ridge Trail circuit, and wound up with yet another perfect day on the trail.

Penitencia Creek is a tributary of Coyote Creek, described in our last post, and was well known to the the mission residents in the 1700's, although the name itself might be from the 1800's. Here is an oak tree along the creek. It looks like it could be at least 300 years old.

Some of the Penitencia path is paved; all of it is urban. 

Beautiful Santa Teresa County Park in San Jose was a surprise -- we had never seen it before, and it is instantly inviting with its long views and vast tracts of undeveloped open space. We watched a nearby coyote stalking something in the grass, and we climbed the park's Coyote Peak (1155'). 

We walked over lots of serpentine on the trail, and passed greywacke outcrops, such as this one on the Stile Ranch Trail. Greywacke is an indicator of submarine avalanches or turbidity currents; serpentine is an indicator of tectonic plate interactions along the edge of an ocean.

This is the view from the top of Stile Ranch Trail, looking southwest toward Rancho San Vicente, a future county park.

A few more photos of our scenic 10-mile day in the January sun are here:
https://photoenthusiast.smugmug.com/Other-1/Santa-Teresa/

Here are photos of the whole walk so far:
https://photoenthusiast.smugmug.com/Other-1