Calero Park, Santa Clara County, California

 Waxing Gibbous Moon

Holy Hospitality, I heard that Calero Park has something called the Calero Bat Inn, so I had to go! Would I see the Batcave? The Batmobile? The BATMAN??? I was excited for this hike!

Calero Park is about 30 miles from my camp, near the southern edge of the San Jose city limits. It includes the Calero Reservoir and about 25 miles of hiking trails. Catch-and-release fishing is allowed in the reservoir, as are boats, but swimming and wading are prohibited. The park rules mention hikers, dogs, and equestrians on the trails, but they do not mention bicyclists, so I'm not sure about them. Instructions include a section called "Be Considerate" which warns people to "use particular caution when passing children, senior citizens, and people with dogs." Haha, senior citizens are dangerous! Watch out for me!

Yesterday was cool, breezy, and mostly overcast with occasional sprinkles, but I didn't mind and I still managed to squeeze in a two and a half hour stroll on easy-to-moderate, very clean, and well-marked  trails. I walked through grasslands and wooded areas along Calero Creek on the Figueroa Trail up to the intersection with the Serpentine Loop, which eventually led me to the much anticipated Calero Bat Inn. Major cumulonimbus cloud formations provided great backdrops for the rolling scenery. The visible wildlife consisted mostly of Steller Jays, turkey vultures, and bushy-tailed tree squirrels, although I saw signs of deer and coyote along the way. Plant life was represented mainly by live oaks, bay trees, and manzanitas lining the creek, with fiddlenecks, blue dicks, California poppies, and what I think were yellow hayfield tarweeds, judging from the wildflower poster at the trailhead. I don't know how to identify different grasses, but there was definitely a lot of grass and it didn't all look the same.

On the edge of a dry segment of the creek bed was a small, alluring, cave-like feature inset into a cut bank. It was the perfect size for a bobcat. I wanted to get closer, but I decided that if, by chance, it really was a bobcat den, Mr. and/or Ms. Bobcat probably wouldn't want me poking around in there. I snapped a quick picture and moved on.

It didn't take long to reach the Serpentine Loop. I had to decide if I wanted to do the whole loop or just the part that led to the Calero Bat Inn. The sky got pretty dark about then, so I opted for a shorter hiking day. The segment I did was not too interesting except for some long views that included part of the reservoir. The serpentinite outcrops were not impressive - maybe the other part of the loop is where the cool rocks are, so I'll do that next time. The purpose of this trip after all was simple: to investigate the ballyhooed Calero Bat Inn!

And then, all of a sudden, there it was, behind a wooden fence, with a weathered, framed educational poster, up on stilts, made of wood, with hinged doors, painted brown, in a grassy field, the Calero Bat Inn. Ta Da! Oh Boy! I was there!

Holy Hand Grenade, was the Calero Bat Inn ever a dud. Surely the Calero bats deserve better than this! A Calero Bat Motel 6 would put his place to shame! I didn't really expect to see any bats in the middle of the day, much less any Batman accoutrements, but I DID expect a more interesting bat-house structure. This thing was little more than a rickety, tall, tower-like covering for a biggo pile of bat guano. Holy Bat Commode!

Well, anyway, life goes on. I got some good exercise and I saw yet another little patch of California in my ongoing, multi-decade quest to walk every still available goldurn inch of my beautiful, shining Golden State homeland. 

Batman, however, needs to step up his game. He should hop in his Batmobile and show up at the Calero Bat Inn muy pronto with his handy Batman tool belt. Holy Hinge Repair!

Peace, Love, and Deferred Maintenance,

Jim

#2,022 in 2022