| SUMMARY |
I was in the Bay Area on business, but before driving back to L.A., I decided to take an extra day and do some county highpoints. I attempted to summit San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, and Santa Clara counties.
| PRE-TRIP |
I didn't really prepare for this trip beyond printing out a few maps from Yahoo and reading some trip reports at the County Highpointers site. But, as will presently be developed, those reports didn't exactly register.
I also had a copy of Gary Suttle's California County Summits which I'd bought a few days before.
This all took place on Thursday December 14, 2000.
| ITINERARY |
Getting an Alpine start on the day's climbing, I took 92W -> 101N -> 380W -> 280N.
Suttle says to take the Monterey exit off the 280.
Now, either I missed that exit, or it doesn't exist or has another name on the northbound side. Anyway, I soon found myself on S.F. city streets after the end of the 280, trying to find a gas station to get directions.
Eventually, I got back on the 280 south, and took the third or so exit after the 280 onramp, heading west on Monterey. Following Suttle's street directions to the letter, I soon found myself at the 4-way intersection of Myra Way, Sherwood Court, Landsdale Ave., and Dalewood Way.
I established Camp IV next to the glaciated South Face of the impressive monolith, just down the street from the bus bench.
My Sherpas' H1-B visas had expired and so my summit attempt would be solo, and, moreover, without oxygen.
Several crevasses, a col, and two bergschrunde later, I attained the lofty North Summit.
After a brief Class 4 section and a caper over the precipitous Knife's Edge, I attained the Mount Davidson massif itself.
Despite being only 927' high, this summit probably has one of the best views (at least the area to its north does).
It's crowned with a 103-foot concrete cross, which has created a load of controversy. While the surrounding park is still owned by the City, the area with the cross was sold to an Armenian church group to avoid it having to be torn down on Constitutional grounds.
My take: S.F. City surely must abide by the Constitution, and it could have been worse. However, no doubt one can find many religious symbols which are sheltered due to their politically correct protectors deeming them cultural rather than religious symbols.
For a good history, albeit with computer-stopping music, see here. For a whole lot of links on this topic, see the 'Proposition F' section here .
The cross was also featured in Dirty Harry.
After the successful summitting of Mount Davidson, I headed south on the 280, got off at Page Mill Road, and drove west about 9 miles to the intersection of Skyline Drive, then 3 miles south to the parking area for the Upper Stevens Creek County Park and the Long Ridge Open Space Preserve.
If you would be so kind as to visualize this in your mind, it will help you to deride me later:
The two parking areas are almost directly opposite one another. I parked on the east side of Skyline, and walked across to the west side's information booth.
The information booth faces north, I was facing south while looking at it.
I picked up one of the free trail maps provided at the information booth, made sure it and Suttle agreed on the main points, and then walked back to the east side of Skyline and began my descent to the wooden bridge which, according to the trail descriptions, crosses a stream at the .4 mile mark.
After about, oh, a mile on the wide forest path I realized something was wrong. Where's the bridge? Did I take the long-way-around mentioned in Suttle?
I started hearing a stream, so I pushed on, figuring if I took the long way, I can always try to find the bridge once I found the stream.
Well, no bridge. So I forded the stream, and began up another path.
After 1.9 miles from the parking lot, I saw a sign announcing this to be the Monte Bello Open Space Preserve. WHAT?
As the astute reader has no doubt already figured out, I was on the WRONG FRIGGING SIDE OF THE HIGHWAY.
After climbing those 1.9 miles back up to the highway, a lesser alpiniste might have just left. After all, I hadn't been hiking for a few weeks due to a minor but still somewhat bothersome injury (presumably not related to alpinisme.) I wasn't in the best of shape, plus every other step hurt a little.
But, I'm no lesser Alpiniste. It's there and I'm here. Take me to the bridge, baby!
This time, no more left-versus-right, east-versus-west confusion seemed possible.
Crossing the road again, I headed down the gentle trail on the opposite side and soon found the wooden bridge. Until the very end, the rest of the trail was exactly as described by Suttle. Except for a steep spot or two, and the muddy/leaf-slickened surface, this trail is a piece of cake.
However, when I got to the summit, I was disheartend to discover that it was enclosed in a tall fence marked "Electric".
Everything mentioned in Suttle is still there, except the "No Trespassing" signs he mentions might have been replaced with new versions. Nevertheless, I walked around the southern perimeter of the fence, trying in vain to find a way in.
After all that work, no luck. If only this trip report had sunk in the first time I had read it.
After 3:40 of muddy, slippery, occasionally painful hiking, I made it back to the car.
(On a more hopeful note, except for a few cars and two mountain bikers, I had the whole park pretty much to my self.)
I spent some time asking the CFD and Park Rangers if they knew anything about the electric fence without luck, and then took Skyline Drive 6 miles past the Long Ridge parking area, parking next to milepost 35 SCL 11.09 as described in Suttle.
I walked up the road to the Christmas Tree lot, and found the Geodesic Survey marker in a wooded area just next to a sawed off redwood tree.
It was already starting to get dark as I started up the very twisty Mount Hamilton Road. To make matters worse, it started to get very foggy.
After over half an hour on this horrible road, I realized that even if I managed to avoid driving down a slope, there wouldn't be anything I could see when I got there. So, I turned back.
| RESUME |
I could have skipped Santa Clara, and done Mt. Tam instead. Or, with an earlier start and without the fog, I could have done them both. Of course, those extra 3.8 miles of hiking didn't do me much good either.
| DISCLAIMER |
Nothing on this page should be considered travel, exercise, driving, shopping, or lifestyle advice. If you attempt any of the activities outlined above, you are solely responsible for the consequences. The background graphic was stolen from www.nps.gov.