Hiking Black Mountain
Jul. 22nd, 2024 02:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerAs we were forming plans for this past weekend we were adamant about one thing: getting out and going hiking. It had been 3 weeks without a hike! Granted, it was because of the hot weather the two weekends in between we'd stay home, enjoying balmy afternoons at the pool. But with a forecast of just 76° F locally on Sunday it was cool enough for hiking again.
Sunday morning we hopped in the convertible and, after lunch in town, drove up into the Santa Cruz Mountains above Silicon Valley. Our most frequent go-to spot up here is Russian Ridge, but Sunday we chose to visit another old friend, Black Mountain in the Montebello Open Space Preserve. (Both Russian Ridge and Montebello are units of the amazing "Mr." OSD.) At the time it felt like we'd last hiked Black Mountain 2 years earlier, but a check through my blogs today suggests our most recent past trip was four years ago. Wow, we're overdue for this hike!
You can't see Black Mountain from the trailhead parking lot, but it does come into view quickly once you start hiking. The trail rounds a bend amid waist-high golden grass, and there it (the peak) is in the distance, on the right of the far ridge.
It doesn't look like much of a climb from here, but after the trail dips down to the base of the far hill it's 800' of ascent to the summit at 2,900' elevation. And with the sun beating down on these hillsides it was warmer up here than back home. During the afternoon the thermometer on my pack read anywhere from 85° F up to about 92°.
And yes, the trail is up, up, up. It's well graded so it's never quite a butt-kicker, but it's enough to give you a workout.
The views from the top are great. Here we're looking off to the west, over the Pacific Ocean. Of course, the Pacific is socked in with fog here, as it usually is. To the other side of us are views down across Silicon Valley. I didn't capture photos of it this trip as I didn't have my nice camera with a zoom lens (I struggled even making the photo above with my iPhone) but you can find a pic of Silicon Valley from atop the mountain in my blog from our previous hike.
Perhaps because of it being a warm day overall, even if much cooler than the record heat of the past few weeks, we had the trail— and the summit— almost entirely to ourselves. I don't know that we saw more than two other pairs of hikers and a few cyclists, all singles or pairs, the whole afternoon. It was unusual having the summit to ourselves, but I'll take it!
The way back down from Black Mountain is almost a reverse of the way up. I say "almost" because near the top there are choices of following a foot-only trail or a fire road. I walked a bit of each. But most of the trek each way is on the narrow arcing around the curves of the hillside. The way down is so much easier than going up.
In beauty I walk.
Sunday morning we hopped in the convertible and, after lunch in town, drove up into the Santa Cruz Mountains above Silicon Valley. Our most frequent go-to spot up here is Russian Ridge, but Sunday we chose to visit another old friend, Black Mountain in the Montebello Open Space Preserve. (Both Russian Ridge and Montebello are units of the amazing "Mr." OSD.) At the time it felt like we'd last hiked Black Mountain 2 years earlier, but a check through my blogs today suggests our most recent past trip was four years ago. Wow, we're overdue for this hike!
You can't see Black Mountain from the trailhead parking lot, but it does come into view quickly once you start hiking. The trail rounds a bend amid waist-high golden grass, and there it (the peak) is in the distance, on the right of the far ridge.
It doesn't look like much of a climb from here, but after the trail dips down to the base of the far hill it's 800' of ascent to the summit at 2,900' elevation. And with the sun beating down on these hillsides it was warmer up here than back home. During the afternoon the thermometer on my pack read anywhere from 85° F up to about 92°.
And yes, the trail is up, up, up. It's well graded so it's never quite a butt-kicker, but it's enough to give you a workout.
The views from the top are great. Here we're looking off to the west, over the Pacific Ocean. Of course, the Pacific is socked in with fog here, as it usually is. To the other side of us are views down across Silicon Valley. I didn't capture photos of it this trip as I didn't have my nice camera with a zoom lens (I struggled even making the photo above with my iPhone) but you can find a pic of Silicon Valley from atop the mountain in my blog from our previous hike.
Perhaps because of it being a warm day overall, even if much cooler than the record heat of the past few weeks, we had the trail— and the summit— almost entirely to ourselves. I don't know that we saw more than two other pairs of hikers and a few cyclists, all singles or pairs, the whole afternoon. It was unusual having the summit to ourselves, but I'll take it!
The way back down from Black Mountain is almost a reverse of the way up. I say "almost" because near the top there are choices of following a foot-only trail or a fire road. I walked a bit of each. But most of the trek each way is on the narrow arcing around the curves of the hillside. The way down is so much easier than going up.
In beauty I walk.
