Two-Heel Drive, a Hiking Blog

Just in time for Valentine’s Day:

So you think he might be the One, but the real deal-killer question looms: What kind of hiker is he?

Will he match your pace out of kindness, leave you behind out of rudeness or get you both lost out of cluelessness?

A few hours at Rancho San Antonio County Park and Open Space Preserve might just settle the matter. The trails are wide and well-maintained, inclines go from flat to steep and back in short order, and there’s even a farm to see how he behaves around kids and livestock.

Thanks to all who contributed to the creation of this one.

I decided to write my next Mercury News column on Rancho San Antonio County Park and Open Space Preserve, so I stopped by the park yesterday to refresh my memory of the trails out that way. Hadn’t been there since November 2006, when I bypassed most of the popular trails in favor of the 14-miler up to Black Mountain and back.

The column’s running on Valentine’s Day, so I’m advancing a theory that Rancho is a great place to test whether your current squeeze is a real hiker or somebody who swaps walks in the woods for cuddle time in the great indoors.

The weekend crowds, parking aggravations and lack of signature attractions make Rancho seem like a third-rate hiking locale at first glance. Rancho’s charms are subtle, like breezes carrying a whiff of bay leaf, and notable to perceptive veteran hikers. Most of the trails are wide enough for walking and talking; the hills are steep enough for a good warm-up without inducing cardiac arrest. Prime terrain for compatibility testing.

If things work out, you’ve got dozens more superior hiking options around here; and if they don’t, you haven’t spoiled a perfectly good hike at one of your favorite places.

I did take my camera along; let’s look at some pictures:

There are always people at Rancho, even on a Monday morning. It was an excellent day for hiking … chilly at first but warming up as the sun rose higher in the sky.

Rancho’s throngs evaporate once you get past Deer Hollow Farm. I headed for Wildcat Canyon Trail, which is always nice. I skipped the loop and headed to Upper Wildcat Canyon. Didn’t spot a wildcat, but I did see a coyote (the picture didn’t come out, alas). The sound of water running in the canyons at Rancho makes winter one of the best times to visit. The mud was mildly annoying, but I’ve hiked in much worse.

It was vistas galore once I got up out of the canyon.

Mount Hamilton still had a bit of snow up there.

Not enough smog to block the view of San Francisco, 40 miles to the north.

I headed back down on the Upper Rogue Valley Trail — I suspect this one doesn’t get much traffic, which is just as well. It’s a nice, mostly shady walk.

If you’ve done the Black Mountain hike you’ve no doubt passed the site of this pond and wondered where the water is. Seems it fills up only after many days rain. Not sure how long it lasts, but it must not be long because I saw only one duck (they have an amazing knack for finding permanent bodies of water, no matter how remote).

I stopped back by the farm on my way back. It’s closed on Mondays, otherwise I’d have gotten some swell pix of the roosters crowing.

Nice day for a walk, if I do say so.

Map to the park:
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There’s an easy way and a hard way to get to Black Mountain, a 2,800-foot summit in the Santa Cruz Mountains west of San Jose. I’ve done the easy route a couple times with Mike and Kathy’s hiking group for their annual First Hike on New Year’s Day. It starts on a fairly remote trailhead at Monte Bello Open Space Preserve and tracks through gorgeous grasslands and forest for about two and half miles. It’s too close to civilization to be considered backcountry, but it does feel pretty wild out there.

Then there’s route I took on Saturday: 7.5 miles and 2,400 feet of climb from Rancho San Antonio County Park — easily the most crowded park in the county — to the Black Mountain summit. The last four miles go along the Black Mountain Trail, which is mostly a tree tunnel until the last mile and a half, when a rather wicked slog to the summit ensues along an old Jeep road.

It takes three and half miles of hiking on gravel roads just to reach Black Mountain Trail, and the scenery is unremarkable till you get there. Half of the 15-mile out-and-back from Rancho is borderline boring, though you have the consolation of knowing you’re getting some exercise (if you don’t mind the hardcore trail runners’ attempts to crush your spirit by effortlessly dashing past you on the way up).

The route has something going for it only under certain conditions: Namely, a sunny day during the cool, wet season a few days after a storm’s gone through. The rain knocks a lot of the gunk out of the Silicon Valley air, which can mean amazingly clear vistas from the nearby hills.

These were precisely the conditions I enjoyed on Saturday, so it turned out to be a pretty nice hike that yielded a raft of pretty pictures. Let’s take a look at ‘em.

This transmission tower is a major landmark a mile and a half from the top. It comes after a couple miles of pleasant switchbacks through the aforementioned Black Mountain Trail tree tunnel. The tower tells you the fun is about to begin: straight up an old jeep road, with a false summit thrown in to make things interesting, then some down and then some back up again. If you didn’t have to hike six miles to this point, though, it’d be no sweat.

When these towers come into view, it’s less than a quarter mile to the top.

These rocks are the most distinctive feature of the Black Mountain summit.

Ye ol’ hiking poles, most handy for distances over 10 miles. (I bought these with birthday money a couple years ago — thanks, Mom! — and they’ve definitely got some miles on ‘em).

The first clouds of an approaching storm system roll in. Note the faint green tint of the meadow here — just a few minor showers this fall have already started greening the hills up.

You’re never truly hiking solo as long as your shadow’s there to keep you company.

I think these are walnut pods.

More clouds gather over the ridge on my way back down the trail toward Rancho.

Here’s one of the many expansive views I saw — San Francisco, the Bay and Oakland are off in the distance.

Holly season!

When the sun’s at the right angle it makes these fuzzy plants glow.

Saw this sky overhead on my way to the parking lot. You never can tell when a great image will show up… sometimes you’ll hike six and a half hours in search of great shots and find one only at the very end.

This route does have something else going for it, come to think of it: it’s an excellent introduction to distance hiking in the Bay Area. The climb is spread pretty evenly until the last mile and a half, and the trails are all well-groomed. Plus there are lots of people around so you’re never far from help in an emergency. If you think all you can handle is 10 miles, this is a great place to prove you can do 15.

Just for fun: here’s a link to a picture of a bobcat spotted at Rancho. Got into a little dust-up with a rattlesnake.

Awhile back I joined a Yahoo Groups mailing list called Walk South Bay. Today I went on a hike with some Walk SB folks, about 8 miles or so, up and down a ridge at Rancho San Antonio park on the east side of the valley. The closer you get to the coast, the greener the vegetation gets, especially on the western side of the Santa Cruz Mountains, which don’t have to endure the blazing afternoon sun that bakes the East Hills (where we live) to a tender golden brown for nine months of the year.

Here’s part of today’s group: over at the far right is Chantelle, who organized this morning’s exertions. At the far left are Clara and Melanie, two recent transplants to the valley. I don’t recall the name of the fourth woman — she and a couple others took a shortcut back to the main park area, a wise choice considering it’d be 95 by the time we got back to the starting line. Six of us ended up following Chantelle up the hills and back down.

Stopping to take on water, about a quarter of the way up. At the left is Julio, a former NASA/AMES researcher who helped send a lander to Mars. At right is Jin, who has another big hike planned tomorrow at a cooler, shadier park.

This was a pretty grueling hike to the top of the ridge for me — Jin, Clara and Julio were kind enough to hang back with me when I said "let’s rest in that shady spot" for the 99th time.

At the top of the trail, before heading back to the park. From left, Tri, Jin, Chantelle, Clara, Melanie, Julio. Two kinds of courtesies were happening on the trail: those slowing down for me and those speeding up for Tri, a former cross-country runner who walked the whole way in sandals, barely broke a sweat in eight miles and kept Chantelle and Melanie moving at an impressive clip.

I got a lot more pictures on the way back down — I was so busy trying to keep air in my lungs on the way up that I didn’t find much time for shutterbug-ery. When I caught my breath, one of the first things I noted was a fresh entry for my "Cool Trees of California" file.

That’s Silicon Valley down there. The mountain range we live in is over on the other side.

On the way back down, Clara and I slowed to what I dubbed flatlanders speed. That is, the pace required to allow for taking photographs of the scenic splendor. (Clara moved here from Chicago a few months back.) That’s the rest of the gang on the trail below us.

Posted purely to allow me to say "when you get to a fork in the road, take it."

Waiting for us again.

I love it when the trees frame the picture. It’s as if they grew that way for my convenience.

Now we’re down in a canyon leading back to the park entrance. Trees falling over the trail are just too damn scenic.

Two women and two horses passed. Jin admires the second duo.

Clara does the hydration thing at trail’s end. Chantelle, a natural-born hike leader, looks like she’s already got the next three worked out in her mind

Julio and Tri ponder cellphone reception in the park’s parking lot.

Well, them’s the highlights. Thanks to Chantelle and the rest of y’all for being such fine company for a hot, dusty morning on the trail.

I’m sure there are insufferable people who hike but I haven’t met any. Everybody I’ve hiked with, whether planned or by happenstance, has been way, way cool — fun to be around and patient when the hills got too steep. Must be something about walking among all this scenery that puts people in a personable frame of mind. Maybe it’s the perspective that comes from seeing stuff that’ll be here a billion years after the last breath’s been burped out of us.

OK, that’s as profound as I get on a Saturday afternoon.