Santa Cruz Mountain Expedition: Purisimia Creek Redwoods

I'll take a break from blogging about Moneterey Bay Aquarium to post some pictures of my hike this Sunday. The biggest thing that I learned from the whole experience is that you should break in your hiking boots before hiking, and that mountain lions aren't pussies:

This is the first (hopefully) in a series of installments about some hiking adventures in the Santa Cruz Mountains. I decided, somewhat on a whim but mostly in a rational and well thought-out manner, to go for a hike this afternoon in the mountains. Palo Alto is flanked by mountains---I see the Santa Cruz Mountains to the west every day as I drive to work, and I have been promising myself for six weeks that I'd get out and get my shoes dirty.

After doing a bit of research, I decided that I would go for a nice 3.6 mile hike in the Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve. The trail that I ended up taking was a 7.1 mile hike that took me along the North Ridge and down into Whittemore Gulch. After going west along the gulch, I hiked back up the side of Harkins Ridge, back to my truck. The route I took is here. I highlighted the entire route.

Redwoods.

The namesake of the park is the redwood tree, a conifer for which California is famous. We've all seen grainy, black and white pictures of the giant trees that must have awed the first generation of white Californians, but it is an entirely different matter to stand with your chest against one looking up, to appreciate the true breadth of these organisms.

Some of the trunks that I encountered were several tens of feet in diameter, at least, supporting massive limb systems which arched up, mostly out of view. The trees gave off a fragrant, cedary smell, which permeated the air entirely as I made my way down to the basin.

Do behold the King Sequoia! Behold! Behold! seems all I can say. Some time ago I left all for Sequoia and have been and am at his feet, fasting and praying for light, for is he not the greatest light in the woods, in the world? Where are such columns of sunshine, tangible, accessible, terrestrialized?

John Muir, 1870

Other Plants.

This isn't the prime time of the year for plant watching, even though it's more or less always springtime here. There were a few covering plants, along with a compliment of native grasses and mosses.


This next picture is a Coyote Bush, I think. I spiced it up a bit with Picasa, a picture editing app from google. I like how it turned out:

As I got to the bottom of the gulch, the air turned progressively cooler and more humid, and it soon became apparent that there was a creek at the bottom. Not only was there a marked increase in moisture, but there was much less ambient light (an artifact of the boreal canopy) and a gentle mumur as the creek made it's lazy way to the Pacific. This change in conditions meant that new species of plants thrived.

Whittemore Gulch.

My truck was parked at roughly 1800 feet above sea level, and the bottom of the gulch is around 600 feet above sea level. After making my way down the side of the North Ridge mostly in the sun, the shade and quietly babbling creek were a welcomed change.

Now I pause for a random picture of poop:

This is a banana slug, the namesake of University of California, Santa Cruz. The rumor is that you can lick them to get a "tingly sensation" on your tongue. "Tingly" seems like a stupid reason to lick a slug, to me. I would go for "mind altering", but "tingly" sounds a bit lame.

Mostly Up.

Once I got to the bottom (400 feet above sea level), I had a tough choice to make. I had overshot my turnaround point about 2 miles back, and was now standing at the trailhead for another trail along a parallel gulch. A ridge of mountains (Harkins Ridge) separates Whittemore Gulch from Purisima creek, so I could either climb back up the face of the North Ridge (which I had already seen), or take a different route up Harkins Ridge. Either way, the return trip was mostly up.

The road back up was definitely difficult in some places, and I had to take several breathers along the way. The route up Harkins Ridge was shorter, but that only meant that the elevation changed more quickly.


Vistas.

Of course, you may be wondering where all the mountain pictures are, in all of this. No matter how many little features your 10 megapixle camera has, or how many angles you take a picture from, it is simply impossible to capture the majesty of these scenes with $200 of plastic, glass and circuitry.

What you can't see in this picture is the Pacific, which was shining passively beyond the far mountains.
This is the best zoom that my camera can do: here you can see Half Moon Bay, and the town of Pacifica, I think.
In all, I would recommend spending a Sunday in the mountains to anyone who couldn't spend it on the beach fishing---even if your hiking boots aren't 100% broken in. Trust me---the blisters are worth it.

Roads go ever ever on,
Over rock and under tree,
By caves where never sun has shone,
By streams that never find the sea;
Over snow by winter sown,
And through the merry flowers of June,
Over grass and over stone,
And under mountains of the moon.

JRR Tolkein