Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve
MVP
Gene Zhang—Gene organized this hike, so if it weren’t for him, this hike would not have happened.
Hike Review:
The trails were clean with shade on about half the trail length.
The parking lot is small and fills up quickly, so an early start is a must.
There is a clean toilet available at the trailhead.
The trail has some really steep parts, so trekking poles could be useful.
There is no T-Mobile reception at the trailhead.
The trail I hiked would have been a lot nicer from the trailhead that is available on the west end, as that would have resulted in an ascent followed by a decent, not the other way around.
What I Learned:
I hadn’t hiked with a group of people in a very long time, and I forgot how nice it could be. It was a pleasure talking to some very interesting people, which made the miles disappear.
I used to consider anything over 1000ft elevation gain difficult, but I have recalibrated after a few of the hikes I’ve done over the summer. I think starting in 2022, I’m thinking of changing my difficult rating to anything over 2000ft of elevation gain.
What Happened?
6.6 miles, 3 hrs 30 mins, 1611 ft of ascent
Gene organized a social hike with others who I had not met before. I showed up at 7:30am and the hike started around 7:40am. I don’t remember much from the hike itself other than the fact that the fogged in trail provided a beautiful backdrop to some really interesting people I got to talk to. I believe the views would have been nicer without the fog, but because I value cold more than views, I really enjoyed it.
The second half of the hike was all ascent, which is the opposite of how I like to hike my trails (up then down > down then up), but it wasn’t too bad. The fog did lift at the end, which provided a beautiful view of Purisima.
