Kicking the "New Tires" at Butano State Park

I've hiked only once since the Pinnacles last May and that was a short hike up the Pipiwai Trail in Maui's Haleakala National Park. So I've been eager to "kick the tires" of my new body and try it out on a longer hike. I planned a hike up to the summit of Mount Diablo for tomorrow, but when the forecast came up rain, I decided to go with other friends to Butano State Park today.

I also decided to try out a new pack system: an extremely large fanny pack, with two 1 litre Camelbak bottles with hoses, one on each side. Since today's hike was supposed to be a short hike, about 4-6 miles, it would be a good day to try this out. I packed one litre of water, one litre of G2, and a bag of trail mix. I didn't bother to pack a lunch since we were going to Duarte's afterwards. I still have 18 pounds left to lose and didn't want to screw up my diet even though hiking.

Several of us gathered at my friends' home at 8:15 am, and carpooled over to Butano State Park, which is near Pescadero. We arrived at the trailhead at about 9:15 am and prepared for the hike. A few minutes later a larger group of hikers also arrived. It would be a good group today!

We started out on the Ano Nuevo Trail, which took us immediately up a steep, verdant redwood canyon. 1.3 miles later, we joined the Olmo Fire Road that took us nearly to the top of the park. Everytime you walk on a fire road, you know that it's going to be steep and hard to climb because the fire roads are built and graded for vehicles and also because there is gravel that can make walking difficult. For the most part, we walked through the damp, redwood forest and were privileged to see one of the park's famous newts on the trail.

The fire road took us out of the redwood forest up to the ridge line, redwoods giving way to pines, other conifers, and sandstone bluffs. This portion of the fire road just before reaching the ridgeline was quite steep. From the ridgeline, there were tremendous views of the Pacific Ocean and the Santa Cruz mountains.

We turned off onto the Indian Trail and headed a little over half a mile to the junction to Trail Camp, where backpackers can camp overnight. There is an outhouse, racoon boxes, and some garbage cans, but not much else. Another third of a mile and we reached the abandoned air strip near the top of the park.

This gravel airstrip looked like it might come in handy to the California Department of Forest in the event of a fire. We found a shady spot and sat down to eat lunch. At this point, it was already noonish, and we had covered about six miles and we still had to go back. My friend's calculations about the length of this hike were obviously off. So I ate my trail mix, saving a little for the journey back.

After about half an hour's rest, we headed back down the mountain. When we reached the junction with Indian Trail, this time we turned right, heading the opposite direction. In contrast with the fire road, Indian Trail is quite narrow - in some places no more than 1.5 feet wide. This sometimes made hiking with poles a bit difficult as the mountain dropped off sharply to the left and we were sometimes walking through thick brush. There was poison oak everywhere, though it was easier to identify as it was often shades of yellow and red. Fortunately, this time I was mercifully spared its ravages.

From the Indian Trail, we hiked onto the Jackson Flats Trail. Now we were again deep in redwood forests, hiking alongside the canyon. The trail here began to widen out a bit making the journey a bit less difficult. This trail took us back to the parking lot, which we reached at about 4:15 pm.

I was a bit sore, but none the worse for the 12.5 miles that I hiked today. I slowed down a bit at the end, but I could have kept hiking another couple of miles if I had had to. I was less than thrilled with my large fanny pack. The bottles sit too wide and do not allow my arms to swing freely - they kept hitting the hoses. I may be able to fix this by buying some hose clips. I'll give it another try. It did feel quite different to have my shoulders free. I probably need to reseat the fanny pack properly over my hip, which was suggested by the tightness in my right gluteal muscles. But all in all a very good day.

At this point, however, I was really hungry as I hadn't eaten a proper lunch. We stopped at Duarte's for dinner, but as I was going to go out with Duane for date night, I couldn't eat dinner. I tied myself over with an hor d'oeuvre, then carpooled back home, later than I thought, but still in time for date night.