Dan's Outside

I go, I see, I do, I walk, I think, I like…

A Castle Rock Hike

After that last post, I’ll start this one with a bit of a more pleasant photograph:


Monterey Bay and the Santa Cruz Range – Castle Rock Park. December 2, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.

In most ways (more on that in a moment) this was a really great hike. I started out at about 10:00 a.m. and it was quite cold and very windy. In fact, it was the sort of wind that causes a sound almost like jet engines – very impressive! Leaves and twigs were flying everywhere, and I didn’t get warmed up until I finally did some uphill hiking. For the first time it actually felt like winter is perhaps beginning around here.

Although it was cloudy on the ridge – due, I imagine, to the clouds lifting as they blew in from the coast – it was apparently sunny out over the ocean. As the photograph shows, not only was it clear enough to see all the way across the bay to the Monterey Peninsula, but the sun was reflecting brightly off of the surface of the water.

About that “most ways” comment above… As I headed back up the trail to the car a bug – a fly, I thought – started buzzing around my head. Annoying. I tried to brush it away, but it was persistent – actually landing on my head and in my hair a couple times. The last time I took a moment too long to swat it away, and discovered the hard way that it was a bee! Ouch! It has been years since I’ve been stung by a bee, and this is the first time I’ve ever had one actually pursue me. Double ouch!

December 2, 2007 Posted by | Commentary, Trails | Comments Off on A Castle Rock Hike

An Almaden Quicksilver Hike…

… or, Who Has Been Plowing Up The Park?

After not going there for some time, yesterday I made it back to Almaden Quicksilver County Park for a hike up the Deep Gulch Trail to the ridge near the old mine buildings. I like this trail because it is a very direct route, heading pretty much straight up to the old English Camp site. I was surprised by light rain – not in the forecast – but it cleared as I neared the ridge.

On the way up I noticed a few areas that looked like they had been worked over by some heavy equipment. I wasn’t quite sure what this meant, but it did look like the non-native and quite invasive (Spanish? Scotch?) Broom plants had been cut way back. About time!

I didn’t think much more about this until near the high point of my hike. At English Camp, instead of ascending to the main ridge on the Castillero trail I took the foot trail that cuts off to the left and arrives on the ridge a bit lower. Arriving here I briefly looked around before starting back down – I was running a bit late. As I started back down the trail I looked to my right and saw two large road cuts through a grove of trees on a nearby ridge – and I decided to investigate. After hiking up one of them, it looks like whoever maintains the high tension power transmission lines that cross that park has seen fit to bulldoze what amounts to a two-lane dirt road straight through the brush to their towers. Pretty ugly stuff.

The following photo is what I think of as an “ironic landscape,” since it is the view one currently sees from the ridgeline trail of this park.


Newly Gouged Dirt Road and Tower of Power. Almaden Quicksilver County Park. December 1, 2007. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.

Lovely view, huh?

December 2, 2007 Posted by | Commentary, Places, Trails | Comments Off on An Almaden Quicksilver Hike…