Hot On Your Trail: Alum Rock Park

The marine layer is back. After several days of absolutely glorious weather, we awoke at 6:00 am to overcast skies and much cooler temperatures. We ate our breakfast and this time headed towards the eastern side of Silicon Valley and Alum Rock Park. Although we had written directions to the park, this time we thought we give "Roger", our GPS, a try. Roger took us to the back entrance of the park. Nix that. We went back to the written directions. We arrived before the park officially opened, which was great because we didn't have to pay the $6 parking fee!

Today after the hike, we had the Honoree pot luck Picnic. We brought sandwich fixings in a thermos cooler and left it at the picnic table. For this purpose, we were glad of cooler weather. Our team leader, Tifin, stayed behind to watch over the food items.

Alum Rock Park is located in a canyon in the East Hills of Silicon Valley. We left the picnic area and first hiked up the hill to Eagle Rock, which shares a hill with a large variety of antennas. As it happens, the W6UU repeater (owned by SCCARA) is located here, as well as microwave, cell phone and other antennas. The trail to Eagle Rock is negotiated via a series of switchbacks up a steep hill. This was steeper than the trail we hiked at Castle Rock State Park last week, but neither Duane nor I were physically exerted nearly as much as we were then. As usual, I needed my first "rest stop" about 15 minutes into the hike. I seem to need some physical exercise before my kidneys start kicking in.


We took a break at Eagle Rock to look at the panoramic view of the southern end of Silicon Valley. We did some stretching exercises and then continued on back down the hill, this time taking the fork to the North Rim Trail. The next part of the hike was the second steepest climb, also up a series of sharp switchbacks. After getting to the top and walking a short way, another set of switchbacks took us back down. The trail meandered around the canyon until we descended and crossed Upper Penintencia Creek.

We are currently in the second "fast" group and we needed to come up with a name. Our unforgettable "Nature Girl", came up with "Hot On Your Trail." Duane came up with "Second Nature," which was clever, but didn't exactly convey the meaning that we wanted. The consensus was for "Hot On Your Trail."

Next came the steepest part of the trail, during which we ascended a series of sharp switchbacks. This was the most difficult part of the hike, but even so, neither Duane nor I were as winded as we were last week at Castle Rock. We walked up the hill through a damp oak forest, full of poison oak, and dotted by wild flowers. We passed some beautiful blue lupine, red Indian paintbrush and other beautiful wildflowers.

Instead of walking back down the same way we came, we took a sharp left turn and descended down a long series of slow switchbacks that took us farther into the canyon as we descended. At last we got to the bottom, the final half hour of the hike following Upper Penitencia Creek. It took us about 3 hours, but I think I could have hiked for another hour, at least.

And I think I would have preferred that, because we ended up waiting almost an hour for all the rest of the hikers to arrive back at the picnic site. The marine layer never did burn off, with the result that we all cooled down and put back on every layer of clothing that we had. By the time everyone else arrived back at the picnic area, we were chilled to the bone.

Before eating, several of our honorees told their stories. (The only reason I have not mentioned their names here is out of concern for their privacy. Blogs are more public than they may desire.) There was one lady who told us her story about being a stem cell donor. That was very interesting as I was unaware of what donors of this kind experience.

Eventually we had our pot luck, but as we were so cold, we didn't stick around for a chat. Duane and I decided to get in our car, turn the heat up full blast and try to thaw out on the way to our son's Tball game! We got there just in time to see the last inning, before going home to a nice HOT shower!