 |
|
|
Track your progress on the Ridge Trail - New Trail Tracker for all users now available!! More...
Green Valley Falls Hikes Return - Guided Outings into this private Vallejo Property More...
May 10, 2008 - Celebrate Nature, Explore Lynch Canyon
May 10, 2008 - Healthy Trails: Lakeside Excursion
May 14, 2008 - Hike the Pinole Watershed
More Events...
Celebrating 20 Years in 2008!
|
 |
 |
|
|
Family Cyclists on Ridge Trail, Almaden Quicksilver County Park, Santa Clara, Ron Horii
he Bay Area Ridge Trail ultimately will be a 550+ mile trail encircling the San Francisco Bay along the ridge tops, open to hikers, equestrians, mountain bicyclists, and outdoor enthusiasts of all types. So far, we have dedicated over 300 miles of trail for use by Bay Area residents, now and forever.
The Bay Area Ridge Trail Council is the nonprofit organization that plans, acquires, builds, maintains, and promotes the Ridge Trail.
Join the Council and help finish the Ridge Trail!
|
|
|
 |
|
|
From Horseshoe Lake to Rapley Ranch Road
Enjoy the midpeninsula's finest views and most spectacular spring wildflower displays on these ridgeline trails through Russian and Skyline Ridge OSPs. Climb through open grasslands to high knolls on trails that vary in surface from duff-covered to gravelly or rocky, and in width from narrow (hikers only) to wide, paved and unpaved ranch roads. Expect gradual ridgetop elevation gains and loses. These exposed ridgetops can be foggy and windy; trails on south- and west-facing slopes offer only intermittent shade.
Wheelchair users can follow the gently graded trail around Horseshoe Lake's west shore to the bridge over the dam on the south side and then circle the wooded east side of the lake. The trail around Alpine Pond is also accessible to wheelchairs from the Alpine Road parking area.
Hikers begin this Ridge Trail segment on a different route than equestrians and bicyclists. From the northwest parking area at Horseshoe Lake, make a long, gradual ascent southwest on a steep, grassy hillside above East Lambert Creek. In late spring, a striking display of lemon-yellow mariposa lilies and blue brodiaea rise above drying oat grass.
After 0.9 mile, swing around to the west side of the preserve and walk through pungent chaparral punctuated by occasional small oaks. From a dramatic parapet chipped out of a sheer sandstone butte, a 180-degree sweep of forests, stream canyons, ridges, and grasslands unfolds below you. On clear days, you can see the ocean, and in almost any weather, you can find Butano Ridge, which forms the western rampart above Portola Redwoods State Park and Pescadero and Memorial county parks. You can reach these parks from the Bay Area Ridge Trail via Ward Road in Long Ridge OSP, and someday Old Page Mill Road in Portola Redwoods State Park will connect to the Bay Area Ridge Trail through Skyline Ridge OSP.
The trail bends into folds of the mountain and traverses sloping grasslands for about half a mile and then enters a brief forested section, where great canyon live oaks flank the trail. A knoll above the Old Page Mill Road junction is the site of former Governor James Rolph's 1930's Summer Capital, which was topped by a gold-painted, papier-mache dome. Sunny Jim owned this land, as well as present-day Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve. Many years earlier, before the settlers arrived, the Ohlones came here to gather acorns, which they ground on nearby rocks.
Continuing on the Bay Area Ridge Trail, round the east side of reed-lined Alpine Pond, cross Alpine Road to the Russian Ridge OSP parking area, and rejoin the bicyclists and equestrians.
Bicyclists and equestrians leave the Horseshoe Lake parking areas (bicyclists use the northwest area, equestrians the northeast) and follow the marked routes down to the patrol road above the handicapped parking area at Horseshoe Lake. Here you go over a stile, veer right (south), and then bend northwest for a steep climb out of East Lambert Creek canyon. Cross the hikers' route and continue uphill (northwest) on an old, hard-surfaced, farm road through the preserve lands, now cleared of Christmas trees and replanted with native oaks by volunteers. At Alpine Pond, use the trail on the west side and cross Alpine Road to the Russian Ridge OSP parking area.
From the north side of the parking area, hikers, equestrians, and bicyclists take the multi-use Ridge Trail route that zigzags up through grasslands toward 2572-foot Borel Hill. Although this hill was named for former owner Antoine Borel, a San Francisco banker and peninsula resident, the preserve's name commemorates a Russian emigrant who lived east of the ridge from 1920 till 1950.
In years of ample rain, this ridge in springtime is a wondrous wildflower sight. On both sides of the trail as far as you can see, extravagant palettes of color sweep over the hillsides and knolls. Often beginning in January you will find perky Johnny-jump-ups turning their yellow-orange faces to the sun. Then goldfields, cream cups, orange poppies, pink checkerblooms, red maids, and blue lupines follow. These beautiful flower fields may approximate what John Muir saw on his trips across California.
After 0.7 mile, just before you reach Borel Hill, a fork in the trail invites you to veer left (northwest) and follow the gently graded, multi-use Bay Area Ridge Trail route around the west side of the ridge. From this trail you can look past the preserve's boundary to Mindego Hill, an ancient, extinct volcano. Beyond lies a succession of rounded, grassy hills creased by almost a dozen streams that join San Gregorio Creek on its way to the San Mateo coast. This west fork of the Ridge Trail descends to a cleft in the ridgeline from where the Mindego Ridge Trail goes right (east) to reach the Caltrans Vista Point on Skyline Boulevard, a convenient parking area where you could put a shuttle car.
However, to continue toward the Russian Ridge north boundary, make a slight jog (less than 0.1 mile) to the left (west) on the Mindego Ridge Trail and then turn right (northwest) on the Bay Area Ridge Trail. A short steep climb to a 2400-foot ridgetop will reward you with wonderful views of the Bay Area: north lie San Francisco and Mt. Tamalpais; across the bay is Mt. Diablo, and farther south of it are Mission and Monument peaks, where another Bay Area Ridge Trail segment traverses East Bay ridgetops; southeast beyond San Jose is Mt. Hamilton. If you look due south on very clear days, you can see the Santa Lucia Mountains rising beyond Monterey Bay.
After 0.5 mile on this top-of-the-world trail, look right for a Ridge Trail turnoff marked Rapley Ranch Road, where all users bear right; the Hawk Ridge Trail angles sharply left.
A 1.6-mile segment proceeds to the Skyline Boulevard/Rapley Ranch Road junction. Follow the old ranch fence line, curving around the south and east sides of another 2400-foot hill crowned by telephone-relay and electric-transmission-line towers. Abruptly you enter a woods of tall oak trees that shade both you and the low-growing shrubs of elderberry, hazelnut, gooseberry, and thimbleberry. As the trail straightens out on the north side of the hill, you pass a wooden platform, a perfect picnic site for your backpack lunch or early evening supper.
Continue north on a long, downhill switchback, under a canopy of broad-branching oaks with lichen- and moss-covered trunks. Looking back, note the transmission towers outlined against the sky contrasting with an earlier, but still operative, form of energy--a windmill. When strong ocean winds blow across this ridge, you can hear the powerline wires singing and the windmill paddles whirring.
A few more switchbacks carry you downhill, across a service road, and below a fascinating, glass-fronted, circular private home high above on the crest of the hill. In the wooded ravine far below the trail another windmill is set in a pretty garden. Follow the contour of the trail around a few curves midway between the woods and the ridgecrest; you pass great boulders splattered with lichen and bedecked with healthy patches of poison oak. In late summer the pearly everlasting's tufted, creamy flowers edge the trail cut into a steep hillside.
After passing through a little woods nourished by an intermittent stream, you skirt a small meadow, round a shoulder of the ridge with a close-to-vertical drop-off, and then enter another woods. At the preserve gate at Rapley Ranch Road, use the stile beside the brown pipe gate. On the left, note the barn with an electric fence, once used to pen a flock of sheep. Enjoy this picturesque, but off-limits, pastoral scene and carry on to the right for just 0.1 mile to roadside parking on Skyline Boulevard.
Someday the Bay Area Ridge Trail will bridge the short gap from here to Windy Hill Open Space Preserve. (See the following trip description.) In the meantime, plan a car shuttle at Skyline Boulevard or retrace your steps to the Alpine Road parking area. If you are making a round trip, try an alternate return route, using the Hawk Ridge, Alder Spring, and Mindego Ridge trails to reach the Bay Area Ridge Trail going south.
Courtesy of Wilderness Press
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
