High Sierra Topix

I do. Lots of great trails along the Bay and especially the hills. I live the open space preserves found along skyline boulevard(hwy35). Skyline is probably one of the most beautiful and underdeveloped areas left in N. Cali. Dotted with open spaces and many memorable trails. On even the most popular summer weekend you can find solitude at Castle rock, Windy Hill, Alpine pond, or Borel hill. Thank god the wealses left something undeveloped.. thank god.

Bearlover wrote:I do. Lots of great trails along the Bay and especially the hills. I live the open space preserves found along skyline boulevard(hwy35). Skyline is probably one of the most beautiful and underdeveloped areas left in N. Cali. Dotted with open spaces and many memorable trails. On even the most popular summer weekend you can find solitude at Castle rock, Windy Hill, Alpine pond, or Borel hill. Thank god the wealses left something undeveloped.. thank god.

Yep. Just moved up here about 5 months ago. Grew up in Santa Cruz. Still exploring all the preserves. Plan on doing a dayhike before the big game today up at Windy Hill Hope to do the skyline to sea trail sometime soon...

BTW, do you know of a trail (north of the skyline to sea trail in Big Basin) that connects the east side and west side of the peninsula (maybe going through the preserves) that goes all the way down to highway 1?

I live on the peninsula and love the availability of so many trails and places to get out when I just can't make it all the way out to the mountains for the weekend. It's easy to find enough long and tough trails to keep me in shape for backpacking the sierra. My favorite is Black Mountain (in MonteBello OSP) from the Rhus Ridge trailhead. ~2300 ft gain, 10 miles round trip - a nice afternoon hike. Just watch out for the rattlensakes!

Several years ago my wife and I hiked every major park in the
Bay Area.
My favorites are Big Basin(Berry Creek Falls best falls in the bay area),
Prisima Creek(Harkins Ridge is a good workout), Huddard Park(Archery
Road is nice a steep).
Windy Hill is about 1 min up the road from work.
Henry Coe has some good pre-season backpacking opps. Maple Falls in
Santa Cruz is nice after some rain. Mt Tams Bootjack Trail to the beach
is a nice hike as is Cateract Falls after or during some rain.
I do not care for the east bay as much though Mission Peak is a good
steep trail which I use for training and Murietta Falls is pretty if we get
alot of rain around April.
Skyline to the Sea Trail is fun I have done several time twice as a
day hike.

There are a few trail combinations that cross the peninsula ridge, but I believe only Skyline to the Sea, and the short trail across Sweeney Ridge to Mori Pt. (San Bruno/ Pacifica) actually end at Hwy 1. There is a connection between Huddert County Park and Purisima OSP, and another between Wunderlich County Park and El Corte Madera OSP that cross Skyline near Skaggs Pt above Woodside, but only Purisima ends at a roadhead. Off the top of my head, I think one could start at Rancho San Antonio OSP in Cupertino, climb up to Monte Bello OSP near Black Mt. , descend Upper Stevens Creek Park and climb up to Skyline Blvd, cross to Long Ridge OSP, then down into Portola S.P., up Butano Ridge in Pescadero County Park, and finally end up in Butano State Park Hdqs., still several miles short of Hwy 1, after ~ 30+ mi?