The (Almost) Compleat Uvas Canyon - Mon Feb 19

Monday was a holiday for me.  I called Michael to see if he wanted to tag along, but he had to work.  Too bad for him.

Inspired by my efforts at Fremont Older on the previous Saturday, I decided on a somewhat ambitious plan to hike every inch of trail at Uvas Canyon County Park.  I sketched it out on the map and it looked to be about 12 miles.  Only one serious uphill, but that would prove to be the obstacle that prevented me from completing the task.

We (me and Raleigh, as usual) got to the park slightly after noon.  The entrance fee machine was out of order.  All I had was a $20 bill and I didn't want the county to make too much profit (the fee is $5; I mailed it in today).  So I filled out the receipt and stuck it to my window, hoping they wouldn't detect that there was no money in the drop box.  I don't think they did.

The first problem was finding a parking spot.  I wanted to park at the start of the Knib's Knob trail but the group camping area was gated off and there was nowhere to park in the camping area further along.  So I had to double back and park at what I thought was the beginning of the Alec Canyon trail.  The nice signboard had a "You Are Here" sign, pointing to someplace else.  In otherwords, it should have said "You Are Not Here."  I walked back up the road towards the entrance gate until I figured out that the sign was full of crap.

After a little ways, the Alec Canyon Trail switchbacks up a few hundred feet and tops the ridget at Manzanita Point.  Views across Uvas Canyon predominate; eventually you can see east back down into the Santa Clara valley.

After Manzanita Point the trail drops down some then you climb a little up Alec Creek's canyon until the trail ends in the vicinity of some kind of logging camp (according to the map and signs.  We doubled back and on the return went up a short trail to Triple Falls.  It's a typical Santa Cruz mountains waterfall.  More of a really steep rapids; but worth the walk.

Back to the trail, up the Manzanita point again, then we turned on the Contour Trail junction which is .5 miles from the start.  This is a great trail, matching its name.  It rises very gradually from about 1600' to 1800' over a course of 1.5 miles or so.  Nice woods the whole way.

When this trail reached Swanson Creek, we weren't sure where to go.  There were use trails upwhich we tried; those fizzled out.  Normally, you expect the trail to cross the creek when you reach it.  But here, the trail descended the same side of the creek for a couple hundred yards, then crossed it.  We saw a couple scrambling further down the bank; I thought maybe they had got waylaid at the same point coming up.

Just past here is marked the "Hothouse Site."  We went a little ways up on a use trail and saw a maze of pipes across the ground and pieces of broken glass.  I guess there used to be a greenhouse here.

A short ways further down is the main waterfall basin.  The waterfall loop trail/road lead here, and other trails branch off to Knobcone Point, Black Rock Falls, and another small waterfall (maybe Basin Falls?).  I went up all those trails.  The Knobcone Pt trail is steep, .4 miles and totally lame.  At the top is a buldozed clearing with a picnic table.  No views.

Black Rock Falls is nice; most picturesque of the whole lot, I'd say.

In order to cover all the trails, I had to descend the Waterfall Loop Trail a little ways, then come back up the Waterfall Loop Road.  I then doubled back and descended the trail .3 miles to where it met the road again.  I then climbed back up the road and immediately turned around and doubled back.

Just before the road met up with the Alec Canyon trail where we started, it intersects the Swanson Creek Trail.  There's a little triangle and I had to go around in a bit of a circle to cover all of the trails.  Finally we made our way down the Swanson Creek Trail to an "access" trail which led to the upper area of the park for the trail to Knib's Knob.

It was 4:15.  I wanted to be back to the car by 5:30 because they said they locked the gate at sunset (which was just before 6:00).  From the Knib's Knob trailhead to the summit is something like 2.5 miles (not counting the .2 mile turnoff to the knob itself).

I knew I wouldn't make it, but I decided to climb up to the bench on top of the ridge.  That was about 700' up and .4 miles or so.  After 30 minutes of steep climbing we were there.  Then booked down in 15 minutes.

Aside from the upper reaches of that trail, the only bit left was the Uvas Canyon trail to its junction with Swanson Creek and then the stretch of Swanson Creek trail back to the road where we had left it earlier.

The walk along the creeks wasnice.  At the junction was a narrow, very steep, rocky descent that Raleigh wasn't able to negotiate (or so I thought; he tends to get too much momentum and I was afraid he'd go right off the edge).  So instead we descended to Uvas Creek and walked up the creek, crossing and re-crossing, then hopped across Swanson Creek.

A quarter of a mile up the creek got us back to the road.  We ascended the trail a bit further (along a stretch we had already done), then turned onto the Waterfall Loop road to complete the last hundred yards until it met Alec Canyon Trail.

That was at a point just beyond the parking lot.  We arrived back at the car at 5:00.

The ride back along Uvas and McKee roads was nice.  Scenic green hills this time of year.  A big turkey ran across the road right in front of us at one point.  Wild turkeys are supposed to be smart but I think they're pretty clueless.  One time Raleigh and I walked right up to one that was so busy pecking at bugs or seeds that it didn't even see us till we were right on top of it.

The turkey in the road survived.

Hike totals: 10 miles, 2300' elevation gain.

2007 Totals: 76 miles; 17,200' elevation gain

Tags: Uvas Canyon, hiking, waterfalls

Mt. Eden Loop - Sat Feb 24

Despite the drizzly weather, Malinda chased me and Raleigh out of the house for a short hike this afternoon.  We went to Mt. Eden Open Space Preserve.  Actually, I'm not really sure if it's a preserve in its own right or just part of Stevens Creek County Park or something.

Regardless, we parked at the top of the "pass" between the Mt. Eden "valley" (Saratoga foothills) and Stevens Canyon and started off downhill (to the left) from the parking lot.

Not many people hike here, and fewer go that way.  We followed the road (through a couple of real muddy spots).  Just past the deep gully/washout, we tried to go up a use trail through the chaparral.  It was steep going and the route fizzled out before meeting up with the horse trail up above.  So we doubled back to the trail.

Soon enough, you come to a small muddy corral.  There were a couple small horses and a pig (!) in it; they got a little agitated seeing Raleigh.  The road then goes up steeply through the oaks via a few switchbacks.  Views of the Saratoga hills appear, then further out into the valley to San Jose and beyond. 

The trail/road is kind of nice.  It's mostly covered with wood chips so it doesn't get muddy.

After you pass under the power lines, you're back into the preserve (prior to that you pass through private property marked with "permission to pass granted" signs).  The road is a gradual uphill till it ends at a vineyard (there's another vineyard if you take the road that branches off to the right at the top).

Nothing too interesting along the way.  We descended the standard route back to the parking lot.

Hike totals: 2 miles; 800' elevation gain

2007 totals: 78 miles; 18,000' elevation gain

Tags: Mt Eden, Saratoga, hiking

Wandering around Fremont Older

After a weekend lost to rain, Raleigh and I went back out yesterday, Sat Feb 17.  We went to Fremont Older preserve and wandered around until it got dark.

First, I decided to not even try to get a parking spot in the main lot.  Having discovered the Parker Ranch road (see entry from last month), I figured I'd park somewhere along that trail and hike into Fremont Older from there.  I picked a spot on a cul-de-sac right next to a trail sign and set out.

This route goes through a bit of meadow and woods, then along a road that goes to a large green water tank.  The trail goes up the ridge from there to Fremont Older's extreme southern edge.

This is where the wandering started.  We took the Toyon Trail to the last intersection before it ends at the Hayfield Trail.  Veered left onto the Bay View Trail to the Coyote Ridge Trail.  Went right on that a short ways and climbed the little peak off the trail on the right.  Doubled back then went right on the Fern Trail.  Took that to the Vista Loop Trail.  Went right until it hit the Coyote Ridge Trail again, went left.  Climbed Maisie's Peak.  Continued a short ways beyond and then turned right on the Bay View Trail again (reverse direction from before).  Took the Bay View Trail to its end back to the edge of the preserve where we headed back down the Parker Ranch Trail.

No wildlife sightings of note (lots of rabbits, though).  A covey of quail exploded out of a tree along the side of the road and gave me a bit of a scare.  No deer!  There was a sign about a crazed coyote on the loose; maybe it was chasing off the deer, too.

Hike totals: 8 miles, 1000' elevation gain
2007 totals: 66 miles, 14,900' elevation gain

Super Stroll Sunday

Come Super Bowl Sunday, I quickly recovered from the WM hike at Pt. Reyes the day before and decided to head back to Monument Peak.  I had attempted to climb it a week earlier but sort of missed.

I figured everybody would be watching the game, but the parking lot was still full when I got there at 3:00 and I had to wait for somebody to leave.  We set out up our usual route (the more interesting Peak Meadow Trail to Horse Heaven Trail).

This time, it was clear on the top of the ridge and I knew where to go.  We turned right after passing through the fence that runs along the top between Mt. Allison and Mission Peak.  This little road gets fainter and eventually turns into a use trail which goes up a gully right up to the top of Mt. Allison.  It's kind of crowded up there with radio and tv towers, but one feels compelled to get to the highpoint regardless.

At this point I had to decide whether to push on to Monument Peak.  It's something like a mile and half between the peaks so I was looking at one hour minimum to get there and back.  It was 4:30 or so so I would likely be heading down in the dark.  But I had my headlamp and thought the darkness couldn't be as bad as the clouds the week before so I set off for Monument Peak.

It was a nice ramble across the ridgetop.  Great views down towards Sunol.  Nobody else up there.  I don't think many hikers head this way and it was too late for any sane ones.

The sun was setting when we reached the top of Monument Peak (just about the same height as Mt. Allison).  Nice views all around.  Then we headed back.  We (oh, "we" is me and Raleigh) took the regular road back towards Mission Peak.  On the way, we kind of went cross-country over Mt. Allison.

It was getting really dark as we went around Mt. Allison to the gate in the fence to start the real climb down.  The lights below were pretty bright and the sky almost black.

Once we reached the gate, it was plain nighttime so I got out my headlamp.  The next couple hundred feet of descent is cross-country here; I just kept heading down and bearing slightly right so I would eventually hit the Horse Heaven Trail, which we did soon enough.  It was an uneventful descent from there.  Didn't seem anybody on our route, but I could see lights on the main trail down from Mission Peak (bikes, I thought).

Next time, Iwant to do all three peaks in one trip.  It would only have required another mile or so of walking and would have been easier coming down the trail from Mission Pk.   I might try that on Mar 3 (when there's a full moon).  I should try to find somebody willing to tag along.

Hike totals: 8 miles, 3000' elevation gain.
2007 totals: 58 miles, 13,900' elevation gain

Waist Not, Want Not

W.A.I.S.T. Management got the new year off and running (well, walking) on Sat Feb 3.  Sorry I'm so tardy filing this report.

We hiked from the Palomarin Trailhead in Pt. Reyes National Seashore to Wildcat Camp (and the beach there), with stops along the way, Allamere Falls being the main one of note.

Hikers were: me, Michael, Jay, Anne, Maura, Gina, and Joan, plus David (who works with me) and his daughter.

It was quite the adventure.  First, we were late to the trailhead.  We spoke to Gina (who was with Joan in her car) and knew we had time to stop for coffee in Bolinas.  So we missed David and his daughter whe eventually left without us.  We met up with them later.

Gina and Joan didn't show for the longest time.  They missed the turn off Highway 1 to Bolinas (the signs get removed by reclusiva Bolinasoids, apparently).  We about missed it ourselves.  They arrived after we were a few hundred yards up the trail so we turned around to go back for them.

Once underway, we had a great hike.  Ran into David and his daughter a mile or so in.  They had gone 2+ miles or so and were headed out.  At least we got to say hello.

Smooth sailing all the way to the falls.  Getting down to them is quite the adventure.  Everybody got to the top of the last bluff before the final drop to the beach.  Michael, Jay, and I scrambled down that last bit as well.   We had lunch there.

We pressed on.  Michael and Jay bolted, never to be seen again (almost, we did see them on the way back from Wildcat Camp).  The rest of us followed the coast trail to Wildcamp Camp and down to the beach there.  It was getting late (around 3:30) and we headed back (taking the Ocean Lake Loop).

We were getting pretty tired at this point, Joan moreso.  The sun set as we headed back down the coast.  We got out the headlamps the last mile or so, and arrived back at the car at 6:30 (it got dark around 6:00).

Stopped for dinner in Olema and drove back Sir Francis Drake Blvd.  I got home in time for the 11:00 news.  Long day, but nice hike.

There was some political unrest regarding that point.  Some felt that we were scaring off potential hikers with such abuse.  There was also some grumbling about the group splittin up into fast vs. slow factions.  I think it was just the sore leg muscles talking.

We'll see how it goes this year.

Hike totals: 12 miles, 1500' elevation gain (maybe more, but it wasn't that much up and down).
2007 totals: 50 miles; 10,900' elevation gain

Mission Peak, Accidentally (Sat Jan 27)

I have been wanting to climb Monument Pk again (I've done it a few times years ago).  But everytime it had been a pretty unpleasant experience starting out at Ed Levin County Park.  That trail sucks, it was always a hot day, etc.

I had also wanted to hike the stretch of trail (more like roads, actually) between Mission and Monument Peaks.  While thinking about doing an afternoon hike this weekend, I got the idea to head up Mission Peak, bear right, and take the trail along the ridge to Monument Peak.

Off we (me and Raleigh) Sat afternoon.  It had rained but looked to be clearing up.  I wore my rain hat and took a windshirt.  If the weather got nasty, I figured I'd just turn around.

We left the Stanford Ave. parking lot around 2:45 and immediate turned right onto the Peak Meadow trail (unsigned, I think).  This trail crosses the creek and then heads uphill in a steep and steady climb.  At 1100' you reach a creek crossing.  Here I usually take the use trail straight up the hill.  This is really steep, climbing 400+ feet in 1/4 mile.  That took me 14 minutes (I timed it).  I only stopped to catch my breath once (I also paused a couple of times to let a group of hikers coming down pass us).

One then follows the ridge (much less steeply now) to where you meet the Horse Heaven Trail.  I don't think the map is very accurate about the placement of this trail.  It seems to be routed much further to the east than shown; you kind of contour to the right and follow along a steep drainage which seems to be on the edge of the open space boundary below Mt. Allison.

Anyway, eventually you come to a horse trough here; there's a spring on this hillside and you can see a large section of the hillside slipping down below the watering hole.  The trail kind of trends left (west) here and we went right, and up, following the creekbed (which at this point was just a dry gully).  After a 1/4 mile or so, we came to the top of the ridge to the right of this gully and picked up a nice wide use trail which had the look of an abandoned road bed.  Up we went on that for a while until it petered out, at which point we struck off straight up the hill, pretty much.

At this point we were south of the midpoint between Mt. Allison and Mission Peak.  This is on the park boundary and there's a fence.  The last time I was there (2 years ago) the fence was pretty dilapidated and you could step over/through it anywhere.  But now there were 5 strands of new barbed wire securely strung along it.  I could see a gate towards the east so we followed the fence line, stepped through the open gate, and across a faint roadway (double-track).

The last detail (the road) escaped my notice, which would help account for the confusion about our location that ensued.  At any rate, I knew I had to contour around the other side of Mt. Allison so we headed cross country (level) towards the northeast.  Eventually, we crossed a double-track but obvious roadway.  Thinking this was the road between Monument and Mission Peaks, we went right on the roadway (which was a relief because the cross country was somewhat awkward due to cows leaving the hillside very uneven with their footprints in the soft turf).

Oh.  I forgot to mention that as soon as we topped out at the top of the ridge, the wind (from the northeast) kicked up and we were completely enveloped in fog and clouds and mist.  I put my jacket on.  Visibility was maybe 100ft.

Anyway, at this junction one road went right and slightly uphill (at least the little bit I could see) and the other went left.  These weren't right angles, of course; the route to the left was more in line with the road we were on.  Thinking I was on the road heading away from Mission Peak, I figured the road to the right went up to Mt. Allison and the one to the left would curve around and lead to Monument Peak.

The road did curve around, but just for a brief stretch before it curved back towards the west and Mission Peak.  But being completely enveloped in fog, I only had a vague feeling that I wasn't going in the right direction.  And since I had just left the road from Mission Pk (or so I thought), surely this one would either go to Monument Pk or head downhill.

After a while I came to signposts marking the Eagle Loop trail and Peak Trails.  That didn't sound right to me, but I kept pressing on.  Eventually, I thought the trail looked familiar; kind of like the trail to the top of Mission Pk (from the east).  Soon enough, we were on top, and saw the little signpost with "Mission Peak" spelled out with nails.

Needless to say, we didn't hang out there long.  You couldn't see anything.  And there was nobody else there, due to the weather and late hour, I presume.  We returned the way we came (taking care to make the right turns to end up where we started).  The cross country stretches were interesting since it was impossible to see where we were headed (unlike on the way up).  But eventually we hit the Horse Heaven Trail at about 2000' elevation and from there ran down much of the way back to the car, arriving at 5:45 (around 1:15 for the return trip).

I've been thinking about "being lost" on this trip and have come to some conclusions:

• A map is useful, even if you don't think you'll need it.  If the weather had been clear, then I would have know exactly where I was and where I was going.  But with zero visibility, the map would at least have given me a chance to reconcile the trails with where they headed.
• This situation is where a compass is useful (I had a compass, just didn't think to take a reading and see I was headed north, then west, rather than south towards Monument Pk).

The interesting thing is that I can look back and see exactly why I thought I knew where I was headed.  Here's the official map and our route (in blue).  I've drawn in the fence line that we walked along and the unmapped road that we joined up with before making the wrong turn.

And here's what I thought was going on:

Again, I've drawn in the fenceline.  In this second map, I've redrawn the roads/trails according to where I thought they were layed out.  Basically, things were rotated 90 degrees or so from what I thought they were.  It's easy to see my mistake in hindsight.  But it's easy for me to look back and play over in my head what I was thinking at the time.

Bottom line: check your assumptions using a map and/or compass.  My GPS would have done the trick, too (provided I had the foresight to record the waypoints for the peaks and/or trail junctions).

Lesson learned.  It did make the trip more exciting.  Nothing like not knowing where you are to spice things up.

Hike: 7 miles, 2300' elevation gain

2007 totals: 38 miles, 9400' elevation gain

Not bad for the first month.  On a pace for 450 miles, so I should be to 200.7 around Memorial Day.

Pimkolam (Junipero Serra Peak) - Mon Jan 15

Ok; I need to write about this before I forget anything...

Abandoning a snowshoeing trip to the Sierra because it was really cold, I decided to instead head to the Ventanta Wilderness area down Monterey County way and climb "Pimkolam" (the native's name for it, which I tend to favor), aka "Junipero Serra Peak."

Some random notes:

• The road to the trailhead is great!  Nicely paved, not too many twists and turns.  No traffic.  It took me 2:40 driving time to get there, a few minutes more on the return.
• The trail is in danger of being overgrown with brush on the explosed slopes and in the manzanita forest, in places.  The Ventana Wilderness Alliance clears it now and again, thank goodness.  Not much poison oak (the trail is wider where that grows).
• Little or no water along the way.  I carried 3 liters for me and Raleigh and there was one stream crossing where Raleigh drank.
• The trail is a pretty nice steady grade, all in all.  Unrelenting, though.  It reminded me a bit of the climb up Mt. St. Helena in terms of distance and climb.  The terrain was very similar to Wildrose Peak (in Death Valley), although not quite as steep a climb as that one.
• It took me 4 hours to go up, 2 hours down.  I kind of bonked the last half mile on the way up.  I needed something to eat, but I didn't want to stop before reaching the summit.
• Saw one guy (military, he was studying Korean at the language school in Monterey) at the top.  Two guys heading up while I was on my way down.  Once was carrying a full pack but said he was just training.  The other guy was carrying nothing.  I told them it was still 1000' to the top (this was at 2:45) and I had doubts they could make the top and return before dark.  But off they went.
• A couple other cars in the lot (I saw two people on the sandstone cliffs near the trailhead).
• The ocean was a bit hard to discern.  There seemed to be a cloud bank over it.  It did reflect the sunlight pretty brightly, but that might have been off the top of the fog, too.
• The Sierra (I think) was barely visible in one gap towards the east.  I had to use my monocular to see it, and it might have been a band of clouds.  I'll have to go back on a clearer day (although it wasn't too bad).  I need to visit other areas so I know what I'm looking at.
• I took my real camera but the battery (freshly charged, I thought) was dead.  So all the pictures are from my phone.  Not too bad; I'm pretty happy with it as a backup camera.

I won't go over the details of the hike.  Reading the captions on the pictures should give you a good idea of what transpired.

I felt great; I had some concerns about such a major effort but I made great time until the lunch came due.  And I about ran back to the car.

I'm going to have to get back here to climb some other peaks.  Looking at the topo, I see Ventana Double Cone, Cone Peak, Anderson Pk, Pinyon Peak, ...


Hike: 12 mi, 3900' elevation gain(!)
2007 totals: 31 mi, 7100' elevation gain

Tags: pimkolam, junipero serra peak, ventana wilderness