08/25 - Wildcat Marsh

 

A good group today...We all circled the "mountain" with Susan, Elaine and Gayl taking the Upper Trail and the rest of us following the lower loop trail. We started in fog and ended with bright sky and a light breeze. Just under 3 miles

As we were getting into cars to leave a fellow came up and introduced himself as the Republic Services site manager. He told us a lot about the way the site had developed and how they are attempting to maintain it in a responsible fashion. The large, low-lying central area is a retention pond for storm water and has no connection to the Bay. The landfill opened in 1953 and was "sealed" in 2010. Now the only additions are green waste which is added to the "garbage mountain"  as a cap.

Most of the plants we saw along the trail were non-native, some from the green waste additions, some from birds. This is probably better walked in fall/winter when the migratory flocks are visiting, but there were lots of seagulls, some egrets and pelicans, and little birds which departed just as one got them spotted with binoculars. All in all a very pleasant morning.

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08-18 Miller-Knox

 

Heavy, smokey haze meant we didn't have much of a view today, but 10 of us (including Ulla for the first time since late June) did enjoy exploring. The trail map is deceptive as the trails are mostly quite rough and not as well maintained as they could be. We were aiming for the "False Gun" installation on the top of the ridge, but never made it that far. After returning to the flat area we went out to the old Sante Fe ferry terminal and then back to the cars. Only a bit over 2 miles but the up and down made it feel like more.

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8/11 - Tilden

 

This is a hike last done in 2005! (at least as nearly as I can tell from the spreadsheet). We started from the parking lot where we usually start our Strawberry Canyon hikes. The trail is moderately up on the eastward walk, then down and eventually moderately up returning to the start. There was enough shade and an occasional breeze to keep us comfortable. The original plan was to take Grizzly Peak trail to Tower trail and that down to Golf Course trail. One look at the steep, narrow, leaf filled rut of the Tower trail led us to extend the hike a bit and circle back around the Gillespie Youth Camp. All very well, but the trail markings are rather sparse and finding the trail past the facilities took some guessing. The 2.5 miles was plenty and we were glad to be back before noon.

Consensus is that this is a keeper. Lots to look at even with all the dryness. Not a difficult walk and some really pretty sections. All the preventative logging is in other areas. And there was a nice grove of redwoods just as we got almost to the cars. A real drop in temperature once we were in their shade.

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08/04 - Huckleberry

 

It was a very foggy, almost drippy, morning as 8 of us started from the Skyline Gate Staging area for Redwood RP. We followed the Bay Area Ridge Tr segment across Pinehurst Rd and into Huckleberry Preserve. There we stayed right and made a CCW loop thru the preserve, returning the way we had come. By noon the sky was mostly blue, but there was still a foggy freshness to the breeze. About 3.5 miles

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