As you could see from my previous posts, I learned about a lot of those routes from books, e.g. Big Basin, Clayton, Mt. Diablo, Calaveras Rd....... Hicks Road is one of the few left that I always wanted to try but didn't get a chance to for some reason, until this labor day (I rode Big Basin with my buddy on the 2012 Labor Day weekend) Maybe it's kinda down south and hard to gauge the time needed to finish the ride because of the climb. Also, I had no idea where to park in Los Gatos (It seems like there are plenty available in the residential area on the streets near Los Gatos Blvd.) The 2 Cat-5 and Cat-4 sections (Shannon and Kennedy, respectively) in and out of Los Gatos were actually quite good for warmup/cooloff. Of course, the biggest "attraction" was from the bottom of Hicks Rd to the summit (before getting up Mt. Umunhum. The Mt. Umunhum climb was one of the hardest in the area and was NOT part of my route) And both sides of Hicks Rd from the summit is kinda symmetric: one steep 1.5 mile stretch on each side so you could pick your own "poison" To me it's a pretty good challenge since I got too familiar with the routes in the peninsula already. The steep downhill is long enough to "re-train" my descending skill without scaring me too much. The shortened version could easily become a 2.5 hour routine weekend ride with my SJ friends.
Thursday, September 10, 2015
Sunday, September 6, 2015
Wunderlich County Park
I got a request to blog about this hike we did on Sunday. I think it satisfied the 4 criteria I mentioned before: (1) shades (2) elevation change ~950ft (3) ~5
miles, i.e., 2.5 hr (4) good scenery.
The parking lot (right off Woodside Rd) is kinda small and luckily we got the last 2 spots. However, people could still easily park close by, outside on Woodside Rd. Compared to Rancho San Antonio, this trail seems much less crowded even though the parking lot was full. And people ride horses on the trails (no bike though) so hikers need to beware of horse manure. It could get a bit dusty too. Still, it's a pretty good trail for those who likes to hike with less people around.
The parking lot (right off Woodside Rd) is kinda small and luckily we got the last 2 spots. However, people could still easily park close by, outside on Woodside Rd. Compared to Rancho San Antonio, this trail seems much less crowded even though the parking lot was full. And people ride horses on the trails (no bike though) so hikers need to beware of horse manure. It could get a bit dusty too. Still, it's a pretty good trail for those who likes to hike with less people around.
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