Now and again I have to remind myself there’s actual hiking with hills and woods available within the San Jose city limits. The city has a few trails for walking, jogging and biking, but the vibe’s more suburban than backcountry…
Day hikes I’ve done
How much do I like Angel Island?
by tmangan • October 18, 2007 • 2 Comments
So much that I’ll go so far as to link to this item by that other outdoors writer named Tom. Stand on top of Angel Island even once and you will realize how a special place can get inside your…
A fresh look at Mount Madonna County Park
by tmangan • October 15, 2007 • 5 Comments
Mount Madonna has over a hundred campsites and the ruins of a mansion built by a guy who owned nearly 2 million acres of California ranch land. It has 20 miles of trails but they’re not the main attraction. I…
Latest Hikes column: Henry Coe
by tmangan • October 11, 2007 • 2 Comments
The format of the column essentially forbids giving proper credit to the greatness that is Henry Coe, so this piece is not among my favorites, but I’m hoping it’ll get a few first-timers out to the park who might’ve had…
Latest hike: Windy Hill Open Space Preserve
by tmangan • October 8, 2007 • 3 Comments
On a clear day you can see Sunnyvale. The operative question being: why would you want to? Sunday was one of the clearest, see-all-the-way-to-San Francisco days in recent memory (which, in my case, goes back to about last Thursday, though,…
Latest Hikes column: Wunderlich County Park
by tmangan • October 4, 2007 • 0 Comments
Read it & weep in today’s Mercury News: It’s a passable getaway on weekends, but the parking lot fills up quickly, a consequence of its shady, sanely graded trails and easy proximity to Interstate 280, Woodside and Portola Valley. Wunderlich…
It’s Bumpass Hell out there
by tmangan • October 4, 2007 • 1 Comment
An L.A. Times article raves over the odorous wonders of Bumpass Hell in Lassen Volcanic National Park. Here’s how the story goes: In 1865, a pioneer named Kendall Vanhook Bumpass, who had discovered the site the year before, guided a…
Searching for fire damage at Henry Coe
by tmangan • September 30, 2007 • 1 Comment
Two long hikes in the past week at Henry Coe have shown me that it takes some serious hoofing to see any of the remnants of the Lick fire, which burned across almost half the park’s acreage. Whether you come…
More Henry Coe pix
by tmangan • September 26, 2007 • 4 Comments
Remember how I said I was on vacation this week? Well, I did have an itch to see if any fire damage was evident at Henry Coe State Park. Bottom line: yeah, if you walk a long, long way. Melissa…