Earlier this month, I had the chance to check out Bear Creek Open Space Preserve in Los Gatos. Up until recently, I didn’t know that this spot existed right off bustling Highway 17. It’s a chunk of land under the care of Midpeninsula Open Space Trust that’s currently not accessible to the public, except by permit.
midpeninsula open space regional district
It’s basically been raining in the Bay Area for the last 2 months. Save for a couple patches of sunlight here and there, I’m beginning to think I live in the Pacific Northwest. The gloomy weather has made outdoor climbing more or less nonexistent.
Our favorite local crag, Castle Rock, is soaked. Yosemite Valley and Bishop have mostly been under snow, or just too wet to climb. Most of my free time has been spent training or hibernating or some combination of the two. Finally, this past weekend, we decided to get out and stretch our legs; rain or shine. Our pick was Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve just south of Half Moon Bay.
Hike: Whittemore Gulch, North Ridge, Craig Britton and Purisima Creek
Where: Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve
Trailhead: Higgins-Purisima Road
Level: Moderate
Duration: 4 hours
Length: 9.9 miles
Gear: Outdoor Research Ignitor Tee, Outdoor Research Women’s Turbine Short, Farm to Feet Boulder sock, REI Flash 18 Pack, Black Diamond Ultra Distance Trekking Poles – Pair, and Ahnu Sugarpine Waterproof Boot
Cost of Parking: Free
I am super happy and excited to announce that I’m joining this year’s Hell Hike and Raft crew! I’ll be heading off to Idaho and Hell’s Canyon early September for three days of backpacking and three days of rafting with some stellar folks.
It just so happens that two of my teammates, Russ Beebe the Winehiker and Annie Yearout the OutdoorsyMama, are located in the Bay Area! We decided to have a little tweetup to get to know each other and do some mild training for the trip.
Our adventure began at the Higgins-Purisima Road, and we took off on the Whittemore Gulch trail to start climbing up the hills of the Santa Cruz Mountains listening to Annie exclaiming about the size and height of the redwoods.
After Whittemore Gulch ended, we turned right onto North Ridge Trail down to where it meets Harkins Ridge. From there, we hopped onto the Bay Area Ridge Trail which turned into Craig Britton Trail until we reached a picnic area. We split from the Craig Britton Trail and took the Purisima Creek Trail next to a tiny babbling Purisima Creek back to the trailhead.
It was lots of fun meeting up with some of the Hell Hike and Raft crew! Say hi to Russ on Twitter, and stop by Annie’s blog!
Hike: Resolution Trail, Plane Crash and Vista Point
Where: El Corte Madera Open Space Preserve
Trailhead: Star Hill Road
Level: Moderate
Duration: 1 hour and 40 minutes
Length: 4.7 miles
Gear: Icebreaker Women’s Tech T Lite T-Shirt, Arc’teryx Delta LT, Lululemon leggings, REI Flash 18 Pack,
and Ahnu Sugarpine Waterproof Boot
Cost of Parking: Free
Had a rare day off several weeks ago with no real plans, so I called up my friend, Karl of Alpha Roaming, to see what kind of mischief he was stirring up for the day. We decided to go chase some plane crashes near El Corte Madera Open Space Preserve.
The first and more interesting plane we stopped by, well, is sort of a secret to preserve the sanctity of the crash. This plane found its final resting site nestled among dense redwoods. Story goes that the pilot was coming in too close and abandoned plane before it crashed here. However, not much is known about this wreckage.
The second crash site lies within El Corte Madera Open Space Preserve off of the Resolution Trail. It’s pretty easy to miss if you don’t know what you’re looking for. Most of the debris has been picked over, and supposedly, a lot more of it lies down the steep hill. We started at Star Hill Road, headed down the El Corte Madera Creek Trail to the Resolution Trail and up to the Vista Point. Near the Vista Point, a memorial plaque is dedicated to the 19 people who perished in the Resolution plane crash on Kings Mountain. More information can be found about the crash here.
For more information on the above two crash sites, please visit Karl’s blog post here.