Point Lobos 2011

My parents and I took a short trip to Point Lobos south of Carmel. There were harbor seals.

Santa Teresa 2011

Jamshid and I went for a short hike at Santa Teresa County Park in San Jose. This park is dry and hilly. Longer hikes are available, but since we're not in shape yet, we just did a four-mile loop. There were also a fair number of bicyclists here, but the fireroads are all pretty steep, so I'm not sure how fun that would be.

San Jose is visible in the distance, with the bay and the Coyote Hills behind.

Joseph D. Grant bike ride

This is a park that gets hot in the valleys and breezy on the ridges, but today it seemed to be just right. (The weather.gov forecast was for a high of 65, but I don't think it understands the terrain, and it was definitely hotter than that in the valleys.

I started my ride at 10am along Grant Lake and then immediately turning uphill on Halls Valley Trail. This is a steep uphill, but I did much of it in 2nd, and only needed to walk my bike for a short distance when the bumpy road wouldn't support a hard effort in 1st gear.

Once on the ridge, I turned left towards Antler Point, which rises even higher, but it's not quite as steep as Halls Valley Trail, nor as long. I arrived at the top right a noon under just a thin layer of fog, which then proceeded to burn off as I stopped for lunch.

The parking lot is at about 1650 feet elevation, the ridge as at about 2600 feet, and Antler Point is at 3000 feet. So although the alternative way down is very steep, past the line shack and into Deer Valley, Deer Valley itself is still at 2600 feet and dropped right back onto the ridge at valley end.

The ridge itself has some undulations, but is mostly flat until it finally dropps down to cross highway 130. From there Bonhoff Trail has steep ups and downs, but mostly downs. Again I had to walk my bike a couple of times, although I got surprising traction from my new tires.

Foothill Pine Trail also has some steep spots, but more interesting is that it essentially runs along a creek bed. Today it was the perfect depth that I could ride with difficulty over the large rocks in the creek bed while splashing through the creek, but there was always a dry place nearby where I could put a foot down when needed.

Once through that, Hotel Trail and other trails leading back to the parking lot are quite flat (Lower Hotel Trail is flatter than the main Hotel Trail). By this point it was about 2:30, and I finally saw my first lizard. I thought it was strange that I'd only seen one, but was glad that I hadn't seen any snakes. And that's when I ran directly over a small one that was stretched out across the trail.

I didn't seen him move even as I ran over him, but I braked and turned around to see him shuffling off the trail. He'd just reached the grass at the verge when I came near again, and he curled up and rattled his tail at me. At only about 14" long, he was clearly immature, and his rattle hadn't hardened enough to get any noise out, but with that stance, he was clearly a rattlesnake.

The internet tells me that rattlesnakes are venomous and dangerous from birth, so I'm glad he didn't have time to throw a strike at me when I rode over him.

I was tired anyway, so I rode slow and easy the rest of the way back to the car. Grant's parking area has picnic tables and water available, so I could rest and refresh before driving home.

The map says my ride was about 16 miles, and I'd guess about 2000 feet of climb. I drank a little over 2 liters of water. Although it was nice to get a view from Antler Point as the fog broke up, I think an earlier start would be good. But the main thing is to just avoid the park in the summer, because any hotter would just be unpleasant.