I did not have much to do this Sunday - too hot for yard-work, but too nice to stay home and do what I normally do …. E-mail, documents and project work. I decided to break my new hiking shoes in with a long hike instead. One more training hike could not hurt.
The South Bay (I’m assuming most anyone reading this is from California although there were some viewers in Germany and France who probably found this by mistake) has a lot of really nice hiking trails, some of which are not overly crowded. There is a really nice county park in Almaden Valley, Almaden-Quicksilver, which has some great hiking and biking trails, excellent views, wildlife (wild turkeys, quail, deer and a predator or two) and some very interesting historic sites scattered throughout. This used to be the main source of mercury (quicksilver) during the gold and silver mining days, and there were mining towns and mills scattered across the hills. There are miles and miles of trails as well, so you can get a good workout, and learn something about the mining history of the area. You can find all kinds of sites on the history of this area, and there is an excellent museum in New Almaden at one of the entrances to the park. Worth seeing. Just don’t lick the rocks.
Nice views of surrounding hills
Rotary mill, used to separate mercury from the ore
I wandered up and down trails for a while, getting in over 6 miles and about 1500’ elevation gain. I also added some weights to my pack to make it more of a chore. I was pleased that; 1) the new hiking shoes were very comfortable on steep trails, up and down; 2) I was able to go 2 miles up-hill without a break. I may make it next week.
One sad note - there is a huge wildfire along the coast, near Carmel. It must be getting very large, since you can see the smoke spreading East and along the Hwy 101. That is such a beautiful area - I hope they can get that under control soon.
I was sorting through gear this weekend - my formerly unused water filter works great. I cannot vouch for the filtering though, so I won’t get too excited about it for now. I found all the parts for my GoPro (a miracle in my house), and best of all, I found my headlamp which will be needed when we hit the trail. Not only did I found a headlamp, I found three. I remember buying the second one when I could not find the first, but somewhere along the way, I must have misplaced both and bought a third. REI just loves me.
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