Bloggin'......

Portola Redwods State Park

It seems it's the start of spring when a few friends and I got together this weekend to hike Portola Redwods State Park. It was a bit overcast but the day turned out to be really good hiking weather. We met up at the Marina Foods shopping center in Cupertino before making the drive on up to the State Park. We took Highway 9 through Saratoga, to Highway 35/Skyline Boulevard, and then up Alpine Road to the park entrance for what was describe as “three torturous and winding miles” of road. Luckily, no one got sick on the way up and we did not fly off the mountain edge. Cool.

Though we were ready for the warm weather, nature was not so ready for us. We started our hike a little after noon, when we immediately came upon our first challenge, a flowing stream about forty feet across. Apparently, the park ranger service removes all the pedestrian walking bridges during the cold winter months and if we wanted to continue, we’d have to cross through the frigid cold water. It’s still partly winter, you know? Not everyone was dressed for the water, so we turned back and tried to find another way around.

We went around, took another trail, and went to the high ground. About six miles in total I believe. What surprised us again, as we were getting back to the ranger station, we came right back to the same stream we had turned around from, except on the other side. How about that for luck? Save for completely turning around, we sucked it up and rolled up our pants, and jumped in the water. OK, it was only about knee deep, but it was COLD!