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Jean, Jennie, Kane, Lan, and I hiked in Portola State Park and
Pescadero Creek County Park.
As we crested Skyline on the drive toward the park, we found the
sky was filled with clouds. Tempting fate, I proclaimed that it
would burn off (the last two times I'd said this, it'd snowed,
hailed, and rained). By the time we started our hike at about
11am, it had indeed burned off and the skies were blue. But it
was still relatively cool, as the shade of the redwood trees would
follow us for most of the hike.
From just above the visitor center, we started off along the Iverson
trail. Here we passed the only hikers we saw the entire trip.
They included several kids who were probably car-camping in the
area.
We continued on the Pomponio Trail to the Bridge Trail and turned
left. While the trails up to this point had been mostly single-track,
the Bridge Trail is a wide fire trail. Mosquitoes were out in
force, and we stopped to apply insect repellent. I put my new
hat on to prevent them from attacking my head.
Shortly, we crossed Pescadero Creek on a bridge. Horses had left
their, um...mark here, and in other scattered places along the
trail. But we never saw any actual horses on the trail.
At some point we should have turned right onto a small trail which
would have led us to the Old Haul Road and eventually Shaw Flat
Trail. But we never made that right turn. I now believe that trail
is called the Snag Trail, but the trail description I have didn't
mention that trail.
So we ended up taking the Bridge Trail to Old Haul Road Trail
(another fire trail), and then turning right onto the Butano Loop
Ridge Trail. In effect, this meant that we were simply doing the
hike backwards (doing the loop in the opposite direction of the
intended route).
One of many banana slugs along the trail
As we climbed up toward the ridge, we passed through a redwood
forest. Scrunch, scrunch went the layer of leaves underfoot. Scattered
throughout the trail were banana slugs big and small. During our
hike we also saw caterpillars, lizards, snakes, squirrels, and
deer. The forest is alive with life.
Unfortunately, because of the thick forest, as we walked along
the ridge we didn't have any great views. This is the problem
with most of the Santa Cruz mountains. While the hills are filled
with lush vegetation that makes the hikes enjoyable, there are
few great views. On the other hand, the Diablo range just a few
dozen miles away has fabulous views in all directions, but not
much in the way of vegetation.
We encountered the same group of mountain bikers twice while on
the Butano Loop Ridge Trail. They were doing the loop in the opposite
direction, and we saw them going up and coming down. However,
as far as I can tell bikes are not allowed on the Butano Loop
Ridge Trail. It's narrow single track with a lot of blind turns,
and a hiker/biker or biker/biker confrontation could be dangerous.
Perhaps they simply thought they could get away with it. As far
as I know, we were the only other people on the trail, so they
probably thought no one would notice.
Descending through the redwood forest
After stopping along the ridge for a view-less lunch, we followed
the long and winding trail through the forest back down to the
Old Haul Road trail. We turned right and started the long trip
back to the Portola Redwoods State Park headquarters. The trail
is hard-packed, and our weary feet started to miss the comfortable
padding of leaves on the Butano Loop Ridge Trail.
After a few miles, we finally reached the service road which would
lead us back to the headquarters. We had originally planned to
hike back along the Iverson Trail, but the section of the trail
heading toward Tiptoe falls was closed due to fallen trees. So
we took the paved service road instead. Eventually we ended up
walking past campsites -- the wonderful smell of burning charcoal
drifting through the air -- before we realized we'd missed a turn.
We back-tracked a few hundred yards and soon were back at the
headquarters, looking forward to a nice dinner.
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