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Sunol Regional
Wilderness
With overcast skies above and a insatiable desire to pet a cow I was nearly trampled to death while my hiking partners casually hiked onward without so much as a care to my well being. I stealthily moved to within three feet of a mother cow and two others. They knew I was there and slowly backed away. I turned away also, as I my urge to pet the damn things weren't strong enough to go chasing them. With my back turned to my bovine friends, the cows that is, I heard a quick shuffling of feet. Obviously, I immediately knew it wasn't my feet making the noise. I whipped my head around just in time to watch one of them make a charge at me. Thanks to all the frequent trips from the couch to the fridge between televised football time-outs, I spun around with lightning speed to face my attacker. I brought my fist up for the uppercut to the massive head if need be while allowing a slight whimper escape from me. It must of freaked her out because she immediately backed off with a unconcerned glaze in her eyes. I made a quick step towards her to show her who's boss and didn't get much a reaction. We both knew and understood each other now. I leave her alone, she'll leave me alone. Fucking cows. Who do they think they are!Well, that was about as much excitement I had on this hike in the Sunol Regional Wilderness.
Late Thursday evening, October 19, 2000, I decided to join along with a few others who had made plans to go for a day hike in the area. I sent off an email to Maureen informing her of my plans to meet her and others in the morning. I arrived at the wilderness parking lot and met with Hameed. Hameed and I have previously backpacked a few times in the Sierra Nevada, once in Yosemite and again to Mt. Whitney. We waited and waited and waited for the others to show up. Maureen and Beaah organized the hike but like usual were late. But late for a good reason. Mo picked up bagels and coffee for me. A very nice thing to do! But, none the less, she was still late. So while I was eating my breakfast, along comes Chris. Now that everyone was accounted for we grabbed our day packs and headed off into the dangerous wilderness.
Walking along the paved road to the trailhead we spotted numerous acorn woodpeckers. Wonder about the origins of this name? Well, get this. The little bastards apparently like to eat acorns. They stock pile acorns caches by imbedding them into pre-drilled holes in trees. Some of the trees we came across had thousands of 1/2 inch diameter holes with acorns stuffed inside. It's nice to see animal life thinking about the future because you never know when the 20 foot snow drifts will wreck havoc in the Bay Area. Fucking woodpeckers. Who do they think they are!
Also spotted a few magpies, a red tailed hawk, and a raven.
Finally, we huffed and puffed to the trailhead, if that's what you want call it. It was basically a ranch gate separating the paved road and a fire road. On we went along the Camp Ohlone Road. The road parallels Alameda County's largest creek, Alameda Creek. How's that for original? The creek bed was fairly impressive for the Bay Area. Approximately two miles from the parking lot is Little Yosemite. Don't be fooled though. It does not resemble the real Yosemite Valley. Large blue gray craggy boulders of schist are strewn about the gorge. Water was present in some of the deeper pools but unfortunately swimming is not allowed in the area because the land is leased from the San Francisco Water Department. I guess they don't trust us not to pee in the drinking supply. The nerve!
A few minutes later after passing the almighty valley we turned off onto Backpacker Road. I think it was Backpackers Road but I may be wrong. I wasn't really paying attention to where I was or where I was going. Just blindly following the others. I think we only hiked along this trail for about 0.5 miles before turning off onto the McCorkle Trail. We stopped and had a bite to eat in a small ravine and to talk a bit. Just friendly talk. Talk mainly about sushi of which I have no comment. Except that it doesn't sound right to eat raw fish. That's why ovens, stoves, and grills were invented people! Nothing terribly exciting, like gossip, to get me going. That would come later at High Valley Camp. We continued on after the short break and joined up with the Cerro Este Road. It was here, Chris spotted a tarantula crossing the trail. Photo Op! Can't pass up on a tarantula even though I see hundreds of the little buggers yearly and always during October, too. OK, maybe not hundreds, more like five/year. Watching Hameed, a 38-year old kid, molest the spider with a stick warmed the cockles of my heart (what's a cockle?). I love seeing curious children at play. Soon after is where I had my little encounter with the cow. A park ranger, who was driving by, happened to see the stand off. I thought he was stopping to lecture me about harassing the cows but he couldn't of cared less. He even complimented me on my stoic stand against the mighty beast. Apparently, an elderly lady was trampled last week by one of these rogue cows. That just goes to show, one should never back off. These cows need to be taught who's boss. You really have to wonder what's going in a cow's head.
We merged on to the Cave Rocks Road and then to the Eagle View Trail. It was here that Park Management placed a sign indicating "steep and hazardous conditions trail" beyond this point. We dropped down into a ravine and wound ourselves up the bank, stepped over the dangerous 2-foot wide torrent of a stream and up a hillside. We made it through with our lives, barely. Thank the Lord, our savior. In all seriousness, don't believe the park signs. There's nothing dangerous about the trail except for some brightly colored poison oak and if you can't avoid that, you probably deserve to get it.
We stopped again for a much un-needed rest break at the Vista Grand Road and Eagle View Trail junction. You can't go wrong here if you want a nice view since both trails have the word "view" in it's name. I took a group photo here with the mountains and bay in the background. It was still cloudy out but the sun shone brightly down upon thee. We even spotted a lizard sunning itself on the trail marker and I set off to capture it but the little guy was just too quick for me. I did have a fun chasing it in circles around the stone marker during our brief stay. Good bye my lizard friend. I will always remember you.
Just before the junction with High Valley Road I walked off trail through a very unique grove of trees. I identified bluegum eucalyptus, California walnut, California juniper, strangler fig, buckeye, interior live oak, coast live oak, blue oak, and thanks to Chris, a pepper tree. Wow, this place is just crazy. Crazy, I tell you!
A brief stop, again, at the High Valley Camp for tanking up on water and then a one-mile jaunt back down to the parking lot. While descending, off the trail approximately 100 yards was dense patch/grove of prickly pear of which a few more cows were hanging around.
Unfortunately, the others couldn't, or didn't want to, go out for beer and pizza. We all took off following Chris out of the park. As I was leaving, alone, once again, I spotted a group of wild turkeys off in a grassy meadow. I liked that.
Although the wilderness is brown at this time of year (autumn) It was still scenic. I'm sure spring would be the best time to visit. Cows are allowed to graze on the property and leave their mark in most places. Actual single track trails are few. Most trails are fire roads. Don't let the park description of "wilderness" frighten you. It's not one.
Some additional information can be found at the web sites.
East Bay Regional Parks
Bay Area Hiker
Bay Area Ramblings
Conta Costa Times
East Bay Barefoot Hikers
