Community Corner

Weekly Walker: Ancient Oaks Trail is Hiker's Paradise

"There is great peace in this natural beauty; we must all help to preserve it." —Inscription on a trailside bench

Watch for this column by San Carlos hiking enthusiast Tom Davids each Thursday. Below is this week's suggested hike to the Ancient Oaks Trail Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve.

By Tom Davids 

The Ancient Oaks Trail Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve

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Directions: Take Highway 92 west to Skyline Boulevard; then go 19.7 miles south to intersection with Page Mill and Alpine roads. Turn right (west) on Alpine Road a short block, then right into the parking lot.

Trail Map: www.openspace.org and search for Russian Ridge.

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Grade: Moderate, from 2,400 feet elevation to 2,000 feet and back again.

Special Conditions: Toilet facilities at trailhead. Parking for 40+ cars. Additional parking at CalTrans Vista Point, Skyline Boulevard, at Gate RR01. No dogs. Horses and bicycles allowed on most trails. No poison oak if you stay on trail. The trail is well drained. No drinking water. Dress for wind. Preserve is managed by Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District.

If there is a hiker's paradise on the Peninsula—a place where you can stretch your legs for an hour or all day, a place to romp through wildflowers or probe along oak-studded canyons, a place of lakes and creeks and earthquake faults—it must be the “Four Corners” area at the intersection of Skyline Boulevard and Page Mill Road/Alpine Road. On the Midpeninsula Open Space District map, this is known as the South Skyline Region—a region encompassing eight open space preserves totaling 12,650 acres, plus two state parks (Castle Rock and Portola) and the Upper Stevens Creek County Park operated by Santa Clara County. In this five-mile radius are hundreds of miles of trails for the hiker, runner, bicyclist, and equestrian. All of the preserves are connected via the Bay Area Ridge Trail.

This week we will visit the Russian Ridge Preserve, an area named for a Russian immigrant who lived on the east side of the ridge from the early 1920s to about 1950. Another link with Russian culture and tradition was a Russian Orthodox Convent, which operated on the property for a short time. Farther back in history, the property was owned by James Rolph Jr., who served as mayor of San Francisco before becoming governor of California in 1930. He died in office in 1934.

The hike begins at the large parking lot just west of the intersection of Skyline Boulevard and Alpine Road. The Ridge Trail (part of the 450-mile Bay area Ridge Trail System) heads north and up along the east side of the ridge. As you hike to the ridge, notice the grassland turning green and the old cattle feeder and water trough on your right. You will probably see hawks circling overhead as they search for their next meal. Crossing under high-tension wires, the trail doubles back, gains more altitude, and then tops out on the ridgeline heading north. Look around, and you will begin to appreciate the vast open spaces on all sides: the Pacific Ocean to the west, Skyline Ridge to the south, and Los Trancos and Monte Bello to the east.

After crossing a saddle on the ridgeline, you will come to a junction. Turn left and wind down through scattered oaks to the next junction. Along the way, you will walk by a bench ideally placed to view the Skyline Ridge preserve to the south. The bench was placed in memory of Janet Chamber Crews and bears an inscription of our quote of the week. Continuing on, you will soon come to a junction. A left turn will bring you to a small parking area on Alpine Road (Gate RR02), but turn right onto the Ancient Oaks Trail. The trail traverses the hillside with specimen oaks on the down slope. Russian Ridge is known for its large specimens of Canyon Oak. As you hike through these oaks, be reminded of Robert Louis Stevenson, who described the dense oak forests around Monterey as “woods for murderers to crawl among.”

Passing through the dense oak forest, you will see a junction with a trail on your right that offers a shorter loop by turning back to the Ridge Trail, but this walk continues straight and downward to the next junction, where you turn right on the Mindego Ridge Trail. The hike continues on an old ranch road for 0.3 mile to the Alder Springs Trail. A right turn takes you back to Skyline Boulevard, but continue straight ahead for 0.3 mile to Hawk Trail. Turn right, and ascend the west sloping hillside. You will soon reach a saddle on the ridge, where you will join the Ridge Trail. It is three miles round-trip if you take the ridge trail north, but for this hike, turn right for the 1.7-mile walk back to the trailhead. After walking along the ridge for one-half mile, you will come to a junction at the Skyline Gate RR01. Go straight ahead onto the hillside and another junction. Then go either straight and over the ridgetop or to the right and around the flank of the hill. We prefer the latter, but the former will bring you by Borel Hill, which at 2,572 feet is the highest point around with spectacular views of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Soon you will be back at the trailhead with an inner determination to revisit this preserve—maybe to check out the Mindego Ridge Trail or the Alder Springs Trail.

Have you joined Tom on any of these amazing treks? If so, tell us about your experience in the comments below.


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