Henry Coe State Park
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
Grouping for our assault on the Steer Ridge Trail
Hiking up the Steer Ridge Trail
At the top of the Steer Ridge Trail
The faster hikers waiting up ahead for us slow pokes
View into the park
Hiking along in a neat line
Our hike leader, “V”, a great guy and an awesome hiker!
Hiking through some shady areas
Image46.jpg
Oops! We lost the trail! I’d hate to do that in the dark!
View down slope and across Coyote Creek
I like fence pictures
Another view along the hike
Lunch break! I was starved
Pausing to enjoy the moment
Along Jackson Road as I recall
I like trees too.
Taking in the view across the park
Another view
Looks like there was a fire over there.
I believe this was along the Either Jackson or Wasno Road
Hiking along
Hiking down the Middle Steer Ridge Trail
Great lighting along the Middle Steer Ridge Trail as the sun went down
Hiking down the Middle Steer Ridge Trail
Rock and scene along the way
Another scene hiking down the Middle Steer Ridge Trail
On Sunday, February 18, 2007, I joined in with the Stanford Hiking Club for a 15 mile hike to Wasno Ridge and back from the Hunting Hollow Entrance.
The Route: Steer Ridge Trail -> Spike Jones Trail -> Grizzly Gulch Trail -> Cullen Trail -> Jackson Trail -> Jackson Road -> Wasno Road -> Dexter Trail -> Grizzly Gulch Trail -> Willson Peak Trail -> Steer Ridge Road -> Middle Steer Ridge Trail -> Hunting Hollow Road.
GPS Stats
Distance hiked: 14.95 mi
Total ascent: 4540 ft
Trailhead Elevation: 870 ft
Max Elevation: 2648 ft
Moving time: 7 hrs
Moving Average: 2.1 mph
Overall average: 1.8 mph
Time stopped: 1 hr 15 min
Personal stats
Dates Hiked:
18-Feb-2007
Start time: 10 AM
Weather: Beautiful! Cool comfortable temperatures in the 60’s F or so with just the right amount of clouds for a great day!
Water consumed: 3 liters
Finish time: 6:15 PM
Total time: 8 hrs 15 min
Beauty: This was a great time of the year to hike as the clouds added beauty in the sky coupled with the greening hills of Coe, the first wild flowers making their appearance, and great views into the park that I had never seen.
Wildlife seen: None, I suspect being in a large group scared away the wildlife.
Difficulty: For me, flat out, this was one strenuous hike, the most difficult I have ever done!
National Geographic TOPO! software website:
It is one week later as I write this. One week ago today I joined up with the Stanford Outing or Hiking Club for a hike that was for me the most strenuous hike I have engaged in yet. For experienced and fit hikers, it would have been a nice day out. For me it was a challenge as I am struggling to get and stay fit. With a sedentary job and a long daily commute, that’s easier said then done.
I first found out about this hike from an email I received as a member of the Yahoo Bay Area Hiking group (BayAreaHiking@yahoogroups.com). The announced route was expected to be 17-18 miles with 3300 feet of elevation change. The longest distance I had previously hiked was about 12 miles with the greatest elevation change of no more than maybe 2960 feet. Because I have something of a bum left knee and plantar fasciitis in my right foot that always bothers me towards the end of my hikes, I expected this would be a challenge that I wasn’t sure if I was up too. I vacillated back and forth in deciding whether to do the hike or not and finally emailed the organizer, “V”, a day or two before to join in. I wasn’t sure if my foot would hold out but as 4wheelBob once wrote on Tom Mangan’s blog, Two-Heel Drive:
“Challenging oneself to the extent possible is the only way to live. Everything else is simply breakfast at Denny's, day after day after day...!”
So, I decided to go for it. I set my alarm for 6 AM and got up and got ready and barely made it on time to the 9:45 AM meet up at Henry Coe. In fact I just beat “V” there by a minute or two.
For the hike though, we had a nice group. There were 16 of us altogether, mostly younger grad students from Stanford along with some professional people of various ages eager to get out of their offices or labs and enjoy the great outdoors. As hikers went, they were all fit and up to it.
Although I have only been hiking for less than a year, I had done most of my hiking at Henry Coe and always made sure to do hills. As we got the group together and attacked the first hill, the Steer Ridge Trail, I quickly found out that I wasn’t in the shape for this hike I thought I was. All of the other hikers seemed to take that trail up the hill with ease and quickly left me in the dust.
The last time I hiked up that hill back in January, I was able to hike up it without too much trouble. This time I found myself quickly running out of energy fast and leaning over my trekking poles gasping for breath. And while to other hikers seemed able to take normal steps up that hill, I was only able to hike it with baby steps. And it was like that all day for me. If I have an excuse, I suspect it is because I came down with a pretty nasty flu like bug early in February that kept me off the trails for a month. I just surprised how much fitness I lost in that time.
Anyway, this hike took us over some great trails and deeper into the park than I had ever been. There were great tree shaded scenes along the creek flowing out of Grizzly Gulch and nice views up on the hills and along the Jackson and Wasno Road.
Because I spent so much time hiking up the hills though, our leader decided to change the original planned route a little, shortening so that we could finish closer to the announced time of 5:30 PM. That brought our distance down some but also threw in an additional 600 foot climb or so. I really struggled to get up that last hill to Willson Peak but after I achieved that, it was virtually all downhill from there.
The problem at that point though was that it was already almost 5:30 PM and so to get us back faster, we took the Middle Steer Ridge Trail down to Hunting Hollow. If you have never hiked down that trail, well, it is steep, a real toe jamming knee buster, and it was giving a lot of people in the group a hard time. My bum left knee was acting up on that decent but other hikers by this time were in so much pain that I actually beat most of them down and back to the parking lot. After bringing up the rear all day because of my difficulty in hiking up those hills, I was the 4th one in to finish with the other 12 hikers coming in behind me, some of them clearly with foot or knee pain.
My own wounds for the hike included some nasty blisters on both hands from over use of my trekking poles on the hills and a bruised big toe on my right foot. My plantar fasciitis stayed pretty well in check and by the time I finished the last descent my bum knee no longer hurt.
My blistered hands are still healing and my toe is still tender but otherwise, I did it! I know, for experienced and fit hikers, this route would be no big deal. For me, it was a challenge and it feels like an accomplishment. Now I can’t wait to finish healing so I can go out again. I really need to work on those hills! Now lets look at the pictures.
