Sunday: It’s time to hand the Summit fire coverage over to the professionals. If you want up-to-the-minute updates, check out the live blog at KRON4. If you’ve got time to read a bit, check out the stories at www.mercurynews.com. The…
Trails
Big Santa Cruz Mountains fire near Mount Madonna County Park
by tom • May 22, 2008 • 3 Comments
The latest: MercuryNews.com update reports 20 buildings destroyed but no injuries in the fire burning near Summit Road south of San Jose. I have to go off to my real job pretty soon (this’ll lead Page 1 tomorrow — note…
Huddart County Park: A preview
by tom • May 20, 2008 • 4 Comments
I’ve plucked Huddart Park in San Mateo County from the many fine suggestions that arrived yesterday. What’s next: hiking there this Sunday and perhaps the one after that. Naturally, bahiker.com has Huddart covered. Jane Huber compares it to nearby Wunderlich…
Wow, somebody reads my column
by tom • May 13, 2008 • 1 Comment
A heartening e-mail arrived in my Mercury News inbox yesterday: A woman who volunteers at the David C. Daniels Nature Center told me she likes to fill in on Mother’s Day because it’s a quiet shift without many visitors. Well,…
Meadow hiking at Wilder Ranch State Park
by tom • May 12, 2008 • 10 Comments
The ocean side of Wilder Ranch State Park gets all the tourists, picnickers and naked sunbathers. Hardly anybody goes to the backcountry on the north side of Highway 1, and almost none of them travel on foot. Hikers probably read…
Latest Hikes column: Skyline Ridge Open Space Preserve
by tom • May 8, 2008 • 4 Comments
From my column in today’s Mercury News Skyline Ridge is one of a string of preserves managed by the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District along Skyline Boulevard in the Santa Cruz Mountains crest west of the Santa Clara Valley. The…
Which South Bay neighborhoods are closest to trails?
by tom • May 3, 2008 • 5 Comments
A reader e-mails to ask where hikers from Marin might want to live if jobs oblige a move to the South Bay. Just to make it interesting, the reader asks, could it also be at least somewhat affordable? Well, that…
Sunday at Wilder Ranch State Park
by tom • April 28, 2008 • 6 Comments
The cool thing about Wilder Ranch State Park is how you get from one side to the other: Tunnels under Highway 1 connect the coast to the backcountry. The map shows two intended for human traffic, and those who’ve been…
Wilder Ranch State Park, a first look
by tom • April 28, 2008 • 4 Comments
I spent Sunday at Wilder Ranch State Park, a couple miles north of the Santa Cruz city limits. The rest of the pictures are here. I’ll chat up this hike later, but I figured I’d throw some pictures up for…