13 of us did a yo yo hike from Rancho Laguna Park along the EBMUD Kings Canyon Tr. San Leandro Reservoir was much lower than we expected; maybe in anticipation of excess snow-melt run off. It was quite warm in the sun and we were glad to eat lunch in the shade back at the park. The group didn't all make the entire path shown on the map. Some stopped at the Bench, others before the steep-ish ascent which precedes the last westward straight section. Distances ranged from 3 miles to about 4 1/4.
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LAST WEEK
7/5 Joaquin Miller
Altho we started from the same trailhead on Skyline that we have used in the past, we tried a different route: Palos Colorados Tr, then Sunset Trail to Chaparral Trail and up to the horse arena. However instead of immediately crossing Skyline, we took Bayview and Castle Park trails to the West Ridge Tr. and back below Chabot Observatory. We dropped into the Redwood Bowl for lunch. After following the Ridge Tr to the Roberts entrance road, we crossed Skyline and came down Big Trees Tr as in the past. Once on big Trees Tr I thought we were "home free" as we have hiked that way several times. But I goofed and turned right where I should have turned left and we ended up making a circle back to our starting point on Skyline. A second try was successful, especially after a dog walker told us the trick was to keep left. The trail we took was not marked on any of our maps and on Google Earth it doesn't show at all since it is under the trees. I'm guessing we added another 1/3 mile. We did, however, find a short cut back to the cars as we neared the bottom of Big Trees and that saved us a 1/10 of a mile :-)
There is one steep up...300 feet in a quarter mile on Chapparal Tr; after that it was just undulating and finally down to the cars. Mileage just over 3.6 as planned, closer to 4 as executed.
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