A local Eagle Scout went out to Almaden Quicksilver and put together a 6.5-mile “participatory history hike,” linking old mining sites at the park. He printed a brochure with a guide to all the sites and included a quiz — and, most importantly, a badge — for those who complete the hike.

The Scout is Zack Taich, a senior at Homestead High who happens to be a pal of the son of a guy named Mike Malone, who used to write for the Mercury News and now has a weekly tech column for ABC News (he once wrote a book about Steve Jobs and lived to tell).

Malone pitched the story of this trail to the city desk at the paper and had no takers; he had to do some convincing to get me interested in it. After all, Boy Scouts doing good deeds in their community is not exactly big news, unless they’re helping Britney Spears across the street into rehab or something.

But it occurred to me that even though Almaden Quicksilver has all these sites, many of which have interpretive panels and such, there hasn’t been a “history tour” trail with a guide that walks you through these sites. So, to my mind, it’s worth checking out.

The hike starts at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Hacienda Entrance to Almaden Quicksilver (it’s the one just past New Almaden, where the mining museum is). I plan to be there.

View Larger Map

Here’s Jane Huber’s BA Hiker post on Almaden Quicksilver, with driving directions.