Adventure: 008, Hike 130 - Gabrielino Trail

Capture California, the Game-2012

Adventure: 008, Hike 130 - Gabrielino Trail

Team: Thing One, Thing Two

Date:  October 5, 2012

Location: Arcadia, CA

Hike Info:

Trail: Gabrielino Trail to Sturtevant Falls

Distance: 4.3 miles

Duration: 2:42

Elevation Rise: 971'

Description:

Thing One and Thing Two went down to Southern California to celebrate their youngest daughter’s birthday. She took her Mom and Dad on a trail in the Big Santa Anita Canyon. After a short drive from Pasadena we came to the trailhead. We had to pay an Adventure Pass fee to park and then we were on our way. It was a very interesting trail with yucca plants then within a few steps, we saw pine trees. It reminded us of going from dessert to mountains. From 1912 to 1936 this area had lodging and rental cabins. There are now quite few private rustic cabins. Sometimes along a trail you will see a great sign. This one said: Take Care of the Land, Someday Youl'l Be Part of It. Then, as if to put an emphasis on it, we saw a dead owl in the middle of the trail.

Earlier in the season we would have seen number of waterfalls as well as wildflowers. We did hike to Sturtevant Falls and enjoyed lunch together. We returned on the same trail except for one minor detour when we took the horse trail to try to make it a loop. From many points along the trail you could see up or down the canyon and get some pretty good views. This minor detail afforded us some of the best views from this trail. Also on the way out, we got into a conversation with John, who owns one of the cabins in the canyon. He talked a bit about having to repair a door which a bear had gotten in through. It sounded like he was taking it as a matter of fact, even though this was not the first time a bear had gotten into the cabin.

This was a good hike. But what ever trail you are on, it is great to hike with your family. And today it was wonderful being lead by our youngest daughter.

Trail listed in California Waterfalls by Ann Marie Brown-“Gabrielino Trail meanders under the shade of oaks and alders along Big Santa Anita Creek. The stream is tamed somewhat by a series of small check dams, forming oddly pretty artificial waterfalls and glassy pools.” Page 434

Adventure 008, Hike 144 - Stream Trail

Capture California, the Game-2012

Adventure: 008-144: Stream Trail

Team: Thing One, Thing Two

Date:  October 3, 2012

Location: Redwood Regional Park

Details: From Bridle I connected to Stream Trail to take advantage of the million bathrooms they have along Stream Trail. It is a paved/ dirt road for a bit and I have a huge group of  high school runners passing me as I jog along. I follow Stream Trail until I get to Trail’s End and hop onto Mill Trail.

Adventure 008, Hike 143 - Bridle Trail

Capture California, the Game-2012

Adventure: 008-143: Bridle Trail

Team: Thing One, Thing Two

Date:  October 3, 2012

Location: Redwood Regional Park

Details: Redwood is quickly becoming one of my favorite running spots! It is a quick detour on my commute home and is filled with lovely trees and lovely streams and lovely people. Bridle Trail is a wide dirt trail that parallels Stream Trail and the road. It is relatively flat and makes a lot of connections with trails going up to French. I veer off Bridle to catch a bathroom that is on Stream Trail.

Adventure 008, Hike 147 - Orchard Trail

Capture California, the Game-2012

Adventure: 008-147: Orchard Trail

Team: Thing One, Thing Two

Date:  October 3, 2012

Location: Redwood Regional Park

Details: At the end of French Trail is Orchard Trail. This is a steep downhill with lots of twisty roots trying to trip me up. Luckily I have a good eye for those kinds of things. I take this down to Bridle Trail which takes me back to my car. I look around for a historical marker that I know is somewhere in the vicinity and after running up and down Bridle for 15 or so minutes I find out that I parked my car right next to it. Doh!

Adventure 008, Hike146 - French Trail

Capture California, the Game-2012

Adventure: 008-146: French Trail

Team: Thing One, Thing Two

Date:  October 3, 2012

Location: Redwood Regional Park

Details: French Trail is one of the jewels of the East Bay Regional Park system. Amazing singletrack with rolling hills and gorgeous views. It also doesn’t hurt that it is surrounded by redwoods.

Coming from Mill Trail I start with a climb up French Trail, which for some reason is killing my calves. I’m blaming it on the barefoot beach run the Saturday before. After I get to the top the calves even out and it is a gorgeous run, with a mostly downhill feel to it.

Adventure 008, Hike 145 - Mill Trail

Capture California, the Game-2012

Adventure: 008-145: Mill Trail

Team: Thing One, Thing Two

Date:  October 3, 2012

Location: Redwood Regional Park

Details: Mill Trail goes the same way that Stream Trail did, just without a stream. And I follow it along until it hits French Trail, my ultimate goal of this run.

Adventure 008, Hike 140 - Riche Trail

Capture California, the Game-2012

Adventure: 008-140: Riche Trail

Team: Thing One, Thing Two

Date:  September 26, 2012

Location: EBMUD

Details: This was my first time on EBMUD trails. You have to buy a hiking permit to hike this area owned by the East Bay water people, which I did the morning of this trail run. The trail map for this area is… lacking and there are a deceiving number of fire roads that a newbie could get mixed up with a trail. I had heard that EBMUD is infamous for poor trail markers so I wasn’t even concerned when at some point I had 4 trails and no signs. I just got my compass and map out and “navigated” …. Into a dead end trail into a power line. Hmmmm…. Well try try try again, I guess. After repeating this a dozen times over the course of multiple trail intersections (all while taking pictures with the flag, of course) I finally came to a dead end. At least I had a view of the San Lorenzo reservoir. At that point I decided to turn around and head back to the car, still perplexed about the trail I was following.

About 200 ft from the car is where I noticed the actual sign for the Riche trail. Oops. I guess I missed that one. So I decided to keep on going so that I could actually do the trail I originally planned on. I would say the real Riche Trail is much nicer than the fake Riche Trail.

Adventure 008, Hike 141 - Redwood Rd Trail

Capture California, the Game-2012

Adventure: 008-141: Redwood Rd Trail

Team: Thing One, Thing Two

Date:  September 26, 2012

Location: EBMUD

Details: In my attempts to hike the Riche trail and instead hiking every single fireroad known to man, I did end up running one actual trail, the Redwood Rd. Trail. It was a gorgeous singletrack that winds through the redwoods and ends up at Redwood Road. The trail sign just said “trail” so I took some pictures of the road as well and then headed back to the other trail to try and figure out where I was.

Adventure 008, Hike 142 - Rhimer Creek Trail

Capture California, the Game-2012

Adventure: 008-142: Rhimer Creek Trail

Team: Thing One, Thing Two

Date:  September 26, 2012

Location: EBMUD- Valle Vista

Details: After Riche trail I took the turn off for Rhimer Creek Trail. It was a gorgeous almost fall trail. There were geese in the air and a stream flowing nearby. It does wind along the backyards of some Orinda houses which was a little strange. This is also a trail which does not get as much traffic as Riche trail. Unfortunately I didn’t get to connect to Kings Canyon Loop Trail, which I was really excited about. Next time I guess.

Adventure: 008, Hike 137: Vollmer Peak Trail

Capture California, the Game-2012

Adventure: 008-137: Vollmer Peak Trail

Team: Thing One, Thing Two

Date:  September 22, 2012

Location: Tilden Regional Park

Details: Another part of 20 mile run. I did a video for this trail marker because I lost my flag.  Vollmer Peak Trail connects Seaview Trail to the steam trains where I was able to fill up my water and take a little break. It was such a hot day that I went through water quicker than I thought. I would have been happier with another bottle for this long of a run.

It was also the halfway point of the run where I got to start running back towards my car!

Adventure: 008, Hike 136 - Seaview Trail

Capture California, the Game-2012

Adventure: 008-136: Seaview Trail

Team: Thing One, Thing Two

Date:  September 22, 2012

Location: Tilden Regional Park

Details: Another part of my 20 mile run. No flag because it decided to stay on the Nimitz trail. I was there though as this was in the middle of my 20 mile run. Later on I had the brilliant idea to videotape myself in place of my poor lost flag. 
This is rolling, hilly trail with a lot trail runners and mountain bikers. I didn’t have my CC flag for this part because it fell out of my running pack at some point on the Nimitz trail. This is also the last place where I had energy on this run.

Adventure: 008, Hike 135 - San Pablo Nimitz Trail

Capture California, the Game-2012

Adventure: 008-135: San Pablo Nimitz Trail

Team: Thing One, Thing Two

Date:  September 22, 2012

Location: Wildcat/ Tilden Regional Park

Details: Another part of my 20 mile run. Nimitz is where I start seeing people again. A good portion of the trail is paved and it is a popular place for bay area hikers. Somewhere along this section of trail is where is where my Capture California Flag  trail ended up falling out.  I even rerouted the end of my run to go along the trail again and see if I could find it. Bummer. 

Adventure: 008, Hike 134 - San Pablo Ridge Trail

Capture California, the Game-2012

Adventure: 008-134: San Pablo Ridge Trail

Team: Thing One, Thing Two

Date:  September 22, 2012

Location: Wildcat Regional Park

Details: Another part of the 20 mile run. The Belgum trail connects to San Pablo Ridge Trail, which goes along the ridge (doh!) giving you views along both sides. That includes a view of the San Pablo Reservoir. At the end of this part of the run you exit Wildcat and enter Tilden.

Adventure 008, Hike 133 - Belgum Trail

Capture California, the Game-2012

Adventure: 008-133: Belgum Trail

Team: Thing One, Thing Two

Date:  September 22, 2012

Location: Wildcat Regional Park

Details:  Another part of 20 mile run. This is where the trail run starts to get difficult. The hills are insanely steep and gnarly. There are a couple hills where I could reach my hands out in front of me and touch the dirt. I even  had another hiker cheer me on because the trail was so insane. Unfortunately after doing those hills I still had another 15 miles or so to go.

Adventure 008, Hike 132 - Wildcat Creek Trail

Capture California, the Game-2012

Adventure: 008-132: Wildcat Creek Trail

Team: Thing One, Thing Two

Date:  September 22, 2012

Location: Wildcat Regional Park

Details: This is the part where it feels like the run actually gets to start. It’s a pretty flat trail (for the bay area) with some slight hills. Tons of people on the trail on a Saturday morning (including a lady walking 9 dogs!!) At some point on the trail I dropped my flag (for the first time) and had to run back to find it. Is that a bad sign?

Adventure 008, Hike 131 - Fireroad to Rifle Range Road

Capture California, the Game-2012

Adventure: 008-131: Fireroad to Rifle Range Road

Team: Thing One, Thing Two

Date:  September 22, 2012

Location: Wildcat Regional Park

Details: This is the first trail in my 20 mile training run. It is a steep steep trail that connects Rifle Range Road to Wildcat Canyon. It’s almost as tough to go down as it is to go up because of the grade of the hill. I had the unfortunate task of having to run up this trail at the very end of this insane run five hours after I started.

Adventure 008, Hike 138 - Upper Big Springs Trail

Capture California, the Game-2012

Adventure: 008-138: Upper Big Springs Trail

Team: Thing One, Thing Two

Date:  September 22, 2012

Location: Tilden Regional Park

Details: Still on the 20 mile run that never seemed to end. I did a video for this trail marker because I lost my flag. This is where the energy seemed to disappear. Unfortunately I couldn’t give up because I was still another 7 miles away from my car. I rolled my ankle at one point, but checked it out and realized I was still good to go, so I kept on going.

Adventure 008, Hike 139 -: Conlon Trail

Capture California, the Game-2012

Adventure: 008-139: Conlon Trail

Team: Thing One, Thing Two

Date:  September 22, 2012

Location: Tilden Regional Park

Detail: Almost the end of the 20 mile run. I did a video for this trail marker because I lost my flag in the middle of the run.  I looked how I felt, miserable. I was so low on energy at this point. I even started walking… a lot. That is not how I run, ever. The sad thing was, Conlon is super nice downhill. That’s how low on energy I was!

Looking back, the route I chose for this 20 mile run was not realistic as training for the particular race I’m doing. I ended up doing 3,706 ft of elevation gain during the course of that run in 5 hours and 10 minutes. I will not come anywhere near that in the Nike Women’s  Marathon.

Adventure 008, Hike 129 - Marsh Trail Rush Ranch

Capture California, the Game-2012

Adventure: 008, Hike 129 - Marsh Trail Rush Ranch

Team: Thing One, Thing Two

Date:  September 21, 2012

Location: Suisan City, Ca

Hike Info:

Trail: Marsh Trail

Distance: 1.3 miles

Duration: 0:33

Elevation Rise: 63'

 Description:

This area has one of the largest uninterruptable marshes in the San Fransica Bay area.   The Solano Land Trust purchased this area saving it be be kept in its natural state.

This trail starts at the Visitor’s Center and goes to the Marsh. Our hike taken just before sunset. We were able to go to the top of an overlook to get a good view of the Marsh and estuary. There were tall reeds and marsh plants. We did manage to scare a few ducks. We visited an overlook that we could see quite a bit of the estuary. There were black berries planted along trail, which gave off a delightful fragrance. Thing One said it was to give the duck food and to prevent people from going off trail. We continued on a side trail but turned around as we had to get back before closing. As we left Rush ranch we stopped to enjoy a drop dead gorgeous California sunset.

Web sites: http://www.solanolandtrust.org/RushRanch.aspx
http://www.rushranch.net/

Adventure 008, Hike 128 - Outer Trail, Wild Turkey Run

Capture California, the Game-2012

Adventure: 008, Hike 128 - Outer Trail, Wild Turkey Run

Team: Thing One, Thing Two

Date:  September 21, 2012

Location: Fairfield CA, Rockville Regional Park

Hike Info:

Trail: Wild Turkey Run/ Outer Trail

Distance: 2.2 miles

Duration: 1:16

Elevation Rise: 196'


 

 Description: .

Rockville Hills Regional Park is 633 beautiful acres of grasslands and oak woodlands, with a dense mixed broadleaf forest. The rich, biological and diverse habitats provide shelter to a variety of wildlife that makes the park their home. They did provide shades for our hikes. This park is a grassy area that overlooks Fairfield.
There are lots of named trails within this park. We did more than three trails but are counting them as three trails. One trail was as short as an eighth of a mile. So we combined named trails so it would be long enough for Thing 1 and Thing 2 to call a trail.


We are now on the Outer trail looking for our second geocache. It is called an Earth Cache since there will be no container but something to look for in the earth, an abandoned mercury mine. We read about how one person had climbed up a mountain at a class 5 to get to the cache. Others said it was right off the trail. So away we went up and around using the GPS to direct us. We did stay on the trail as mountain climbing is not in our level of expertise. After more meandering but less than the first geocache. We find a hole in the ground that was not covered. That was pretty exciting. So after we look at the mine we decide it is time to go, so away we go. We continue on the outer trail. We then go back down on some other trails until we get back to the BART trail. This leads us past the dried up pond, which we past earlier in the day. Now there is a prison work crew taking a break by the area. We then go look for the Inspiration Trail where we find the 3^rd geocache. We then find the Wild Turkey Run. We then decide to go back to the car which takes us back down the Rockville trail.



On this adventure, we also wandered down some other paths and there was some overlap with other trails which we went on to get to these the Wild Turkey and Outer Trails.









www.geocaching.com