Playing Hooky...

Grouse Lakes Area

(Carr Lake- Round Lake Trail- Grouse Ridge Trail-Round Lake Trail)

(10.2 miles)

But wouldn't you want to play hooky here, too?

So through various circumstances, I have not been up to the Sierras at all this summer. This is not my idea of how a summer should be, and so I decided to rectify the situation. Thanks to other circumstances, a weekday was all I could scrounge up, but it was SOOOO worth it.

As I said before, I was worried about my hamstrings/knee, but decided that even if I walked for 3 miles, it would be worth going--and clearly I ended up doing more than 3 miles. I didn't feel the best I've ever felt, but I was happy that I could run more than I've run all week, and I am feeling optimistic about things.

This run starts from Carr Lake, which is off Highway 20 out of Nevada City, in the Tahoe National Forest. It's called the Grouse Lakes Area (link to a small map of the area) and it is a great summer running trail. From Highway 20, take road 18, and then after 8 miles of windy curves, road 17 for 4 miles of dirt road.

Getting here from my house was not a short drive-- over three hours, but for someone in the Sacramento area, or a Bay Area person on a rare weekend day, it's worth the drive.

I had hiked part of this trail in 2003, and I remembered a plethora of swimmable lakes on this trail. Memory did not deceive me. Within the first 3.5 miles of the trail, I passed by six different lakes, five with wonderful water options. The top picture and these two are just three of the five lakes-- and I don't even think any of these are the lake we swam in last time I was here!

I did feel like I got my dose of Sierra trails though-- this trail leads throug h some very typical Sierra scenes. As mentioned here, there were plenty of lakes, surrounded by huge pine trees and at least part of the lake edged by granite boulders spilling into the lake, reminiscent of the glacial carvings that formed them.

Then we also had the standard forest scene, where the trail led between huge trees and fallen logs necessitated several detours, one almost causing me to lose the trail.

I love this hot and rocky kind of trail the higher it climbs, because when you are above timberline, this landscape turns into rocky spires that promise a sweeping view if you climb to the top. Today I was not remotely near timberline-- Carr Lake started at 5565 feet, and while this is definite ly enough to create a little heavy breathing, timberline is usually around 8-10,000 feet in the Sierras.

Finally, we have our pastoral scene: a trail winding through a forest meadow. This grass was so soft, I could have lain down and taken a nap-- I kid you not.

We ended up splashing about in a lake that was called both Milk and Mill Lake, depending on whether you were looking at a map or signpost. Neko was, of course, ecstatic at the opportunity to splash around. If you have never had the privilege of being the only human being at a Sierra Lake, well, I cannot recommend it highly enough, and it helped assuage my disappointment that this was the only day I spent in the Sierras this summer.

This run must be done in the summer, because they do not plow this road in the winter. Dogs are also welcome in National Forest land. Even though I don't usually worry about kids when writing up trails (who is going to make their child run 12 miles?), this would be a great place to take kids on a hike.

Alpine Lake- Shorter!

Alpine Lake- Round 2
(Azalea Hill- Bullfrog Rd- Kent Trail- Stocking- Rocky Ridge- Bullfrog Rd- Azalea Hill)
(8.5-9.0? miles)

There are two (mentionable) activities that are guaranteed to make me really, really happy. One is salsa dancing (as mentioned in the previous post) and the second is trail running. Yesterday I finally ended up going salsa dancing at The Ramp- one of my absolutely favorite places in San Francisco. (You can't beat a live band outdoors, on a Saturday afternoon, right next to the water, in my opinion.) Today I headed over to Marin for a longer trail run than I had planned, but I was reminded of how much I love this trail AND how much I love long runs in the dirt.

For parking and starting point for this run, go back to my previous post. Today I took it very easy on the beginning downhills, but then was running pretty well by the time I got to Bon Tempe Dam. From there, I took the Kent trail alongside Alpine Lake. I will not go on at great length about its beauty, but it's still my new favorite lake in Marin. This time, instead of taking the Helen Markt trail to the (rather painful) Cataract Trail, I went left at the fork and continued on Kent Trail as it climbed up the hill. Kent trail is not exactly what I would call flat, and there were a couple of "fast-walking" sections, but it was nowhere near as grueling as Cataract-- or that was my impression today, at any rate. Kent trail IS a gorgeous trail though. Shaded most of the way by huge redwoods (see first picture) or overhanging manzanitas, like the picture to the right, it makes for great summer running.

At the next fork in the trail, I headed toward Rocky Ridge. The last time I ran this section of the trail, Alex and I were hot, tired, very low on blood sugar and not in the mood to be impressed by much. (Nor were feeling grateful, to the dismay of the waitress at Cafe Gratitude...) As a result, I wasn't waxing poetic about the view. Today I was much more aware of how far I could see on the top of this ridge. It was not crystal clear today (a few smoky vestiges still), but I could still see the Bay on one side of me, and then, on the other side, the Pacific Ocean. Ah, Marin. Why must you justify your astronomical housing prices?

I must say that I need to find another way to start this run though. For some reason, the grueling uphill at the end (0.8 miles of rather impossible-to-run climbing) didn't seem as painful in my memory as it is actuality. Apparently I could have parked near the golf course, but I was not feeling exploratory today. Too bad.

The great news is that my knee felt fine-- and this was not an easy run. I'm very happy about this. I'm also happy about the fact that I just got back from a five-course dinner at Chelsea and Louis'. In short-- this was a brilliant weekend. This last picture (which was at the top of Azalea Hill as I finished my run) completely sums up how I feel right now...

Purisima Creek Redwoods

Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve

(Purisima Creek- Whittemore Gulch- North Ridge- Bay Area Ridge- Soda Gulch- Purisima Creek)

(12.1?)

I'm not going to lie to anyone. I've lived in the Bay Area for 14 years, and I have only visited Peninsula hiking trails on 3 different occasions--two of those were for PCTR events. However, my aunt had sent up a request for computer assistance for her blog, and Peninsula trails were closer to her than, say, Marin or the East Bay. So we headed south on the 280. 

Purisima Creek Redwoods, according to the cursory research I just did on the internet, are generally second-growth forests. (I swear, I'm close to buying a bunch of Bay Area history books... as well as a guide to the flora. I know lots of plants but it's becoming irritating to not be able to refer to plants by name...) From 1854 to 1920, several lumber mills operated in this area, and logging even continued until the 1970s. However, there are still two old growth areas on this hike: one sandwiched between Whittemore Gulch and the Bay Area Ridge Trail, and the other off the Soda Gulch trail. Did I notice the ancients compared to the newbies while I was running? No. I am neither a botanist nor a dendrochronologist--I just think old trees are cool. 

The second growth forests aren't bad, either. We started at the Redwood Trail parking area, and started down the Purisima Creek Trail, shaded by stately second-growth redwoods.

 Down is a good word to use here. Steep might also be appropriate. Foreboding, thinking of the end of the run, would be another good one. Jen and I kept hoping the trail would flatten out soon, because every step down would be another to run back up.

When the trail did flatten out, it meandered along next to Purisima Creek. Ferns and other greenery (there's that lack of names again!) kept the trail cool and comfortable to run. To be honest, it was rather chilly on this run, and I was glad to be moving the whole time. This is a great run for summer, though. I kept thinking how different this environment was than the Ohlone Wilderness, or even the trail I did on Thursday morning. It makes one rather overwhelmed by the Bay's ecosystemic possibilities...

At the end of the Purisima Creek Trail, we took the Whittemore Gulch trail to the North Ridge Trail. Whittemore Gulch is a worthy trail. It climbs a bit but then mellows out and gently ascends up to the ridge. As we left the redwood forests and headed up to more exposed regions, we were treated to many different wildflowers--blue forget-me-nots filled in any space left by the different plants, and we also found thistles holding on to beads of moisture. I have never seen a thistle that looked this pretty.

Whittemore Gulch led to North Ridge and then the Bay Area Ridge trails, and then dropped down to Soda Gulch. Several sites I had read before this cautioned against missing this trail, and I am happy to report I would agree with them completely. Soda Gulch is a hikers-only trail, which Jen partially lamented. It runs through huge redwood trees--some of the old growth forests, but again, I was not aware of which trees fit this bill and which did not. 

As a random side note, there was an article published in the New Yorker in 2005 about the redwoods in Humboldt County (the link is just to the abstract). Many have crazy plants (huckleberries, ferns and others) that have taken up residence in the uppermost branches of the tall trees. I was reading another site (sorry, did not note the link) that said some of the old growth trees at Purisima Creek Redwoods have some of these same kind of epiphytes growing in the tree tops. Not as many as the giants in Humboldt County, but they still exist.

Once back on Purisima Creek Trail, we slogged back up to the parking area. This was a rather painful 1.8 miles--at the end of the trail and straight up. We ran into some bikers who were on road bikes (yes, road bikes) on this trail and judging from their tracks, they rode all the way back up to Skyline. And we thought we were studly for running all this...

All in all, Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve has made me a convert to the trails of the Peninsula. I have a feeling I will be coming back more this summer, as these trails are MUCH cooler than the East Bay options. Apparently you can bring your dog on some trails on a leash, but it was not clear from the websites I read which trails those are.