Creek Running North

Photo: Matthew Martin Melchizedek Carlstroem above Saratoga Gap. An utterly gorgeous day for a hike. We covered just over ten miles out and back from Skyline to the headwaters of the San Lorenzo. The trail skirted the edge of a very steep hill, at times truly precipitous with drops of a hundred or two feet before the first obstruction. Views included Monterey and Santa Cruz, The Gulf of the Farallones, and the trees above Sherwood Harrington’s house.

It was cold at times: we exchanged concerned looks when we first got out of the truck at the trailhead. But motion warmed us, and by the time we got to Castle Rock Falls we were pretty toasty.

I’d only been to Castle Rock State Park twice before: once about a dozen years ago to write it up as an audition for writing trail guides for Wilderness Press, and again in 1996. I’d forgotten exactly how rough the trail is. Not particularly strenuous over the rough spots, but potentially ankle-cracking nonetheless.

Pleasures: the last five miles was consistently and rather steeply uphill, aside from a couple steep descents near Goat Rock. I felt as though I never needed to stop climbing, a markedly different experience from my hikes a couple months ago. And then there was the fungifauna, and a magnificent grove of madrones I’d forgotten lined the ridge crest. I’m not waiting another eight years before going again.

Of interest only to me: 10.4 miles, bringing me up to 125 miles trail hiking since September 6. About 2500 feet elevation gain.