Coyote Peak Loop Hike

 Waxing Crescent Moon

I have been tossing around ideas for 2022 hikes for some time now. Prospects for large scale hikes remain dim with the ever-lurking specter of viral variants and travel risk so at least for now, I am staying local and doing my best. Wherever it ends up happening, my minimum goal is to walk 2,022 miles this year, a reasonable average of 5.54 miles per day. Barring injury or illness or psychiatric collapse, I should be able to manage that.

I recently discovered a Sierra Club pdf entitled the "Nifty Ninety" that lists ninety non-technical Coast Range peaks to "climb" (hike, really) in the Bay Area. Most of them are below 2,000 feet above sea level. Mt. St. Helena at 4,339 feet, is the highest one. So I decided to give that project a go between now and summer just for a change of scenery. 

Yesterday I drove to the Pueblo Day Use Area in Santa Teresa County Park near San Jose to do a loop hike that included the short climb up to Coyote Peak (1,155 feet). The rainstorms from the past few weeks left the trails pretty muddy, but they also greened up the hillsides and filled in the creeks with cheery running water. Lots of ups and downs gave me a decent workout and blew stale, vax-murdered, COVID corpses out of my lungs. It was fun! The first mile was a steady, semi-steep hike to the turnoff for Coyote Peak on a wide, wet, curvy dirt road.

Hidden Spring Trail from the Pueblo Day Use Area

There were lots of outcrops of serpentinite, California's state rock, along the way, including one big one which made me wonder how and when it became so fractured.

The left turn on the Coyote Peak Trail came sooner than expected and a minute after that I was on my way on the side trail to the top. An easy-peasy stroll past some power lines and there I was, overlooking San Jose with views of the Diablo Range on one side and the Santa Cruz Mountains on the other. Spectacular banks of clouds provided most of the visual entertainment. In just the ten or so minutes I spent up there, the sky changed dramatically, sometimes opening up to show glimpses of snow atop the highest peaks to the east.

My favorite stretch of this hike was the Rocky Ridge Trail, which wound along the side of a ridge littered with small (basketball to beachball sized) serpentinite and greywacke boulders of the Franciscan Formation. The Sun broke in and out of the clouds the whole way and blue sky started to edge out the clouds. The mud on the trail was sticky and sloppy in parts, but there were lots of rocks to step on in the worst puddles. At the start of the trail, which is popular with mountain bicyclists, someone had written BRUISE on the pack of a trail sign. That would be the minimum result of a crash in the rocks here. 

The Rocky Ridge Trail switchbacks down into a canyon, crosses a wooden bridge, and meets up with the Mine Trail that takes you back to the Pueblo parking lot, completing the 3.5 mile loop, or leads you in the opposite direction toward Calero Creek. I explored the Mine Trail and the Fortini Trail for a mile or so before turning around and heading for Hondo. 

So far, I have walked to the top of Mt. Tamalpais, Mt. Umunhum, Mt. Madonna, and Coyote Peak. I think I will try Nibbs Knob next time.

Peace, Love, and a Most Pleasant Walk,

Jim