It was quite the week: the implosion of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), spillover pressure on other regional banks, torrential rains and steady (and more mundane) downpours, a freak windstorm resulting in widespread power outages and a 2-day PG&E school holiday. If there was ever a day to get outdoors for a few hours, yesterday, Saturday, was it. No rain in the forecast. No wind. Probably a few fallen trees closer to the ridge line, some mud, perhaps a few mountain bikers. I plan these hikes weeks in advance, so the weather, especially this winter in the San Francisco Bay Area, has been a big unknown. I canceled a hike, for the first time since forming this hiking group, in January, when Mission Peak was closed. It rained during our last hike, and snow met us at the peak. This is the wettest winter in years, and, frankly, the most bizarre in terms of weather as far as I can remember. It has seemed to me for some time that the best job in the Bay Area is that of a meteorologist; each year, for 11 months nothing happens. This winter is the exception to that general, time-tested rule.
El Corte de Madera comprises one of the many open space preserves in the Peninsula. From San Francisco, take Highway 280 south to Highway 92 west to Highway 35 south for 8.5 miles. Park at the Vista Point. The trailhead is about a quarter of a mile north on 35.
Here are the hike details: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/california/el-corte-de-madera-creek-trail-fir-trail-and-gordon-mill-trail-loop. 10 miles, 2,300 feet elevation gain, per All Trails. Our adventure included a slight detour, adding 1.5 miles and another 700 feet to the total. 5 hours with a few snack and water breaks. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday morning.
One of the many pleasures of these hikes, besides the exercise, disconnecting for a few hours, and resetting, are the conversations. Many of us are around 50 or older. When you’re young, you try to avoid the uphills. When you’re older, you try to avoid the downhills. Sometimes knees cooperate. Other times, they do not. We discuss the weather (of course), SVB, our favorite hikes, travel, working to live or living to work, domestic politics, Brexit, the sophistication and worldliness of the average European (if there is one) compared to the average American (same), why on the Giant Salamander Trail we could only find a banana slug, and so on. The conversation is free flowing, effortless, until my navigation skills falter, ever so slightly, and we cross over to the Manzanita Trail, for the aforementioned detour. First, in my defense, El Corte de Madera is a maze, 3000 acres of myriad trails. Second, and more important, Manzanita Trail is breathtaking, narrow, well-maintained, with 10-foot manzanita trees on both sides, a new world, after 10 miles of hiking along the ridge line, down to a verdant gulch, and then back up, past redwood, fir, and bay trees, among others. Before long, we find the Fir Trail, aptly named as well, and return to the Vista Point, to enjoy the views of the Bay and to conclude our hike.
This was 12/50. 38 more to go. Comments welcomed.
The Peninsula Hiking Club 