Posts Tagged ‘February’
Black History Month, Celebrating with a special hike
This week we had strong winds, rain and snow resulting trees and branches falling, and power outages yet again. Yes you heard that right, snow! Since our hiking boots have been holding up, we decided to explore another park during the lull between the storm. Last weekend of February, with just a few days to pay tribute to Black History Month, we chose Sam McDonald Park. Our chosen hike was the Heritage Grove Loop – spanning heritage grove trail and towne fire trail – from main parking lot to trail marker 25 to 30 to 26 to 20 and back to the mail parking lot. It is a 4 mile hike but we went off the trail – from trail marker 26, we went off towards 6 and then backed up. We ended up walking a little more than 5 miles and 65 stairs.
Read the rest of this entry »Coal Creek OSP, Feb 2023
In the winter months, after the rains, it is nice to go see the seasonal waterfalls in our forests. We went on a 4 mile hike through Coal Creek Open Space Preserve. Our hike started on Alpine road trailhead, and we climbed the bypass trail, the Crazy Pete’s trail and climbed down via the Coal trail back to the trailhead. The milkmaids were in bloom. From parts of Alpine, we could see the Corte Madera Creek which was also flowing enthusiastically. The trail intersects with coal creek on Crazy Pete’s road where there was a seasonal waterfall. I recorded the sounds, both upstream and downstream of the bridge and it was distinctly different. How obvious, but how so wonderful. There were a number of bikers and the trails were muddy. All in all, it was a welcome getaway.
Sequoia Audubon Trail, Feb 2022
It was a delightful 1.5 to 2 miles roundtrip trail along the marshes. It was an absolutely gorgeous day by the beach when the inland was cloudy and cold. We took our binoculars to watch the birdlife and found some common Canadian geese. January and February had not seen much rain this year after a lot of rain the previous two months and as a result, some of the vegetation had started to dry out already. There were a lot of cattail. A few of the yarrows were in bloom, but plenty were getting ready. There was not much shade along the way, and it was surprisingly warm.
There is parking right at the start of the trail, but south Pescadero beach is perhaps a better spot to park if combining with picnic lunch. At the beach, you will see people fishing and there are a number of benches to enjoy the ocean view.
Read the rest of this entry »Hiking in Uvas Canyon, Feb 2022
We had intended to do the 3.5 mile waterfall hike as per POST recommendation but ended up taking the detour up to Knobcone Point which added an additional 0.8 miles to the total. When they say steep, they mean steep. We practically crawled up to Knobcone, but the reward was a lovely picnic table where we had our lunch. I enjoyed the flatter contour trail part of the hike where the air smelled of California/mountain laurel. Much of the hike is shaded, the ground is packed dirt and also steep downhill on Alec Canyon.
Locomotoring 