Henry Coe State Park
Redfern Pond
Moss covered rock by Wagon Road
Cloud cover viewed from Wagon Road
I like tree pictures :-)
Trail marker pointing the way to Willson Camp.
Horse tracks in the muddy Wagon Road
More trees
Moss covered tree
The clouds lifted
The clouds are back
More moss on a rock
Coyote prints, notice the claw marks.
Trail into Willson Camp
Willson Camp
Tree in the sun
Tree in the fog straight ahead!
A California Newt!
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View from on high
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Another newt!
The Middle Steer Ridge Trail going down.
View off the trail
Trail marker pointing the way back to the entrance
Continuing on down
At the bottom of the Middle Steer Ridge Trail
Nearing the end of the Middle Steer Ridge Trail
Trail marker showing the distance to Willson Peak
The Windmill back on Hunting Hollow Road
On Saturday December 9. 2006, I hiked a loop at the Hunting Hollow entrance: Hunting Hollow Road -> Phegley Trail -> Wagon Road -> Willson Camp -> Steer Ridge Road -> Middle Steer Ridge Trail -> Hunting Hollow Road and back to the park entrance.
The top story on page B1 of the Friday, December 8, 2006 San Jose Mercury News was that a big storm was expected to roll in over the weekend and soak the area good. Regarding any plans to go hiking, the story advised staying indoors and winterizing your home instead. So what did I do? I went hiking.
I know, cold, wind, and rain does not sound like the best weather to go hiking in but the weather reports on the internet suggested I would have intermittent rain during my hike and the worst of the rain wouldn’t develop until later in the day. And besides, there was a hiking group out of Stanford I was hoping to link up with at 9:30 AM at the park entrance for the hike. Their message was that rain would not cancel the hike and come prepared for it. So I did.
I am not a morning person mind you and I love my sleep but I set my alarm and rolled out of bed at 6:00 AM. I ate a hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs and cereal and juice and coffee (I’m not going anywhere without coffee!), and went through my usual prep of getting dressed for my hike and getting my gear together. Not that I need it but I still like to carry 6 liters of water in my pack for the added weight (about 20 lbs) for the exercise of carrying it and I had two 3 liter Camelbaks in my backpack sitting ready on my kitchen table.
I had put everything in my car and then came for my backpack only to find that one of my Camelbaks had sprung a leak and there was water everywhere! On my kitchen table, on the floor, just everywhere and my backpack was soaking wet and it was already past time for me to leave the house and I had this mess. Arrghhhh!!!!
Well, I spent the time, cleaned up the water, dried my pack as best I could and investigated where the water leaked from. It turned out the Camelbak had a pinhole leak up near the top of it. I dried the area, stuck a band-aid on it, drained the remaining water down to about 1.5 liters, put it back in the pack and left the house about an hour late.
When I got to the park, there were maybe 8 or 9 cars in the parking area and I saw one woman, an equestrian, readying her horse for a ride. I asked her about the Stanford hiking group and she told me yes, there was a group that left for their hike about 15 minutes previously. I said yay figuring I could double time it and catch them.
I spent a few extra minutes though figuring out how to do my gear since I had never hiked in the rain before. I started out wearing a long sleeve Patogonia top with another fleece top over that, a raincoat shell, and then my backpack with my poncho over all of that. I quickly decided I would be too hot, disrobed and dumped the fleece top and then put the rest back on and started the hike.
As I hiked I still got hot and was glad I wasn’t wearing the fleece top. I was sweating so bad up through the poncho that my glasses steamed up so that I couldn’t even see through them. I’m blind as a bat without them and yet I had to push them down over my nose just to see where I was going.
Anyway, it had been raining already and the roads and trails were muddy and I could easily see and follow the boot prints of the people who were hiking somewhere up ahead. In spite of the rain, the Hunting Hollow Road creek crossings were all dry (a big relief!) and I made good time hiking the Hunting Hollow Road to the Phegley Trail. I never saw the Stanford group on the Hunting Hollow Road but hoped I would see them climbing up the steep Phegley Trail. Not to be. There was no one in site.
Still determined to catch them I started up that steep trail with a vengeance! Oh man that trail is steep! I got up the first rise quick enough but quickly bogged down to a slow pace for the rest of the climb. Not to be detoured, I slugged through it and carried on.
Every so often I would call out as I climbed still hoping to catch up to a group I assumed would be taking a leisurely hike. And finally I heard some voices through the light rain and I thought, yes! No. When I got up to where the people were, I found a group of 5 or 6 volunteers doing some much needed work on a collapsing section of the Phegley Trail in the rain! I was so beat at that point, having climbed maybe 800 feet up in elevation, that I couldn’t even imagine being out there with a pick or shovel to work on a trail in the rain! My hat’s off to them.
I stopped and talked to them for a moment and asked about the Stanford group. They told me that there were two guys from Stanford that had passed by a good hour ago and my heart sank. I wasn’t sure how long this hike would take and with the shorter days and heavier rain coming, I really didn’t want to walk it alone in the dark in the rain. One guy in the work group told me not to worry, hiking Henry Coe in the dark is safer than walking the streets in San Jose, and go for it. So I did.
And I surprised myself. I got up to the top of Phegley Trail and over to Wagon Road by maybe 11:15 AM (I don’t remember the exact time). And I started taking time for pictures along the way to document my hike. Anyway, while not sure if I could catch these two guys I pressed on with the quest. Because of the rain and the mud it was easy to find their tracks on the trails and roads.
I pushed on through Wagon Road to Willson Camp where I made a BRB at the outhouse and then continued on. By the way, Henry Coe sure has nice outhouses! Funny the things you appreciate on the trial isn’t it?
Anyway, as I followed the boot prints, I ended up on a brief detour from the planned hike continuing on Wagon Road instead of taking the left fork onto Steer Ridge Road. I discovered the mistake when I suddenly noticed the boot prints in the muddy road going the opposite direction. So I turned around as I figured the two Stanford guys must have and went back to take the left fork and found their boot prints continuing on there.
And as if I hadn’t climbed enough already, the Steer Ridge Trail climbed so more, and some more, and some more! I know I am not as young as I use to be but my legs felt like they were ready to fall off. And then as I got to the top around Willson Peak (2651 feet) the cold wind really picked up with some strong gusts. I had taken the head covering of my poncho off my head to cool down but now I put it back on and I was sure glad for it. It was cold up there and the wind protection and warmth it offered sure felt good.
The Willson Peak area offered some nice views but rather than spend to much time, I continued on in my hopeless quest to catch up to these two guys from Stanford. Am I silly or what? At first I was worried about hiking alone in the dark but found myself making great time on this hike. And I was finding that with my equipment and preparation, I was able to stay warm enough and comfortable enough out on the trail in the intermittent rain and cold gusty winds. It was actually pretty nice being out there! But given the disastrous and near disastrous stories that have been in the news about people unprepared and lost in the wilderness, AND being the worry wort and chicken that I am, I pushed on with my hike rather than loiter at the top like some looky-loo and have the evening descend on me before I finished.
Eventually I made my way to the Middle Steer Ridge Trail and started the decent down. Around 2:15 - 2:30 PM, I thought I saw two guys walking off in the distance on the Middle Steer Ridge Trail. It might have been an illusion, I don’t know, but I continued on down with no hope of catching them if it was them. They were just too far ahead.
I finally made it down to the bottom and to the Hunting Hollow Road by 3:15 and back to the parking area and my car by 3:30 PM. And wouldn’t you know it? It really started to rain! I had to take off my poncho and backpack standing by my car while it rained bobcats and mountain lions, somehow a fitting end to what was actually a very enjoyable hike. I was pretty wet but if I had to do this hike again, I would! While it did not rain heavily on the trail, the rain I encountered out there made for a very peaceful environment out in nature.
Directions: Going through Gilroy, CA on 101, take the Leavesley exit going east. Go 1.8 miles and turn left on New Avenue. After about half a mile, turn right onto Roop Road and follow for about 6.6 miles to the park entrance.
Parking fee: $4.00
Henry Coe State Park website: http://www.coepark.org/
Profile and map generated from the the tracks saved by my GPS as I walked. The statistics below are from my GPS, a Garmin GPSMap 60CSx. It’s not exact but it seems to agree pretty well with other sources including the TOPO! topographic maps. I wonder if the total ascent figure from my GPS is more accurate given what I presume is a greater level of integration from my tracks than what is available from the topographic map used in generating the elevation profile. I don’t actually know but either way, I really like both products and the way they work together to give a good idea of the hike!
GPS Stats
Distance hiked: 10.8 miles
Total ascent: 2964 ft
Trailhead Elevation: ~860 ft
Max Elevation: 2636 ft
Moving time: 4 hrs 9 min
Moving Average: 2.6 mph
Overall average: 2.1 mph
Time stopped: 51 min
Personal stats
Dates Hiked:
9-Dec-2006
Start time: 10:30 AM
Weather: High of about 60 F. Cold and windy on the peaks with intermittent rain throughout the hike.
Water consumed: 2 liters, 600 ml gatorade
Finish time: 3:30 AM
Total time: 5 hrs
Beauty: Varies with some pretty moss filled tress and shady areas to open areas with expansive views
Wildlife seen: 2 California Newts, some deer, and a flock of wild turkeys.
Difficulty: This hike offered standard Henry Coe fare with steep trails and roads that made for a great workout. The distance made for a satisfying hike and surprisingly, my knee did not complain on the descent down the Middle Steer Ridge Trail.
National Geographic TOPO! software website:
