Weekly Walker Hike # 1 Leads to Soda Gulch Trail

[Editor's Note: Watch for this column each Thursday on San Carlos Patch!]

By Tom Davids

Soda Gulch Trail in Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve

“The longing to be primitive is a disease of culture.” --George Santayana

Directions: From Highway 92, turn left on Skyline Boulevard. Continue 4.5 miles south to the parking area on the west side of the highway.

Trail Map: www.openspace.org and search for Purisima Creek Redwoods.

Grade: Moderate.

Distance: Eight miles in and out.

Time: Three to four hours.

Special Conditions: Watch for poison oak at upper elevation. Vault toilet available at trailhead. Dogs not allowed. The Harkins Trail is a multi-use trail for hikers, equestrians, and bicyclists. This preserve is administered by the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District. No use fee.

Author’s Note – This trail is now named after Craig Britton, who served as the Open Space District’s general manager for many years. He is now retired, but his vision for the preservation of open space on the Peninsula lives on.

The Soda Gulch Trail is for hikers only—no equestrians or bicyclists. Park at the large lot located 4.5 miles south of Highway 92 on Skyline Boulevard. At the trailhead (next to the “environmental” outhouse), take the narrow “Hikers Only” trail to your right and descend through a fir tree forest laced with ferns and forget-me-nots to a junction with the Harkins Fire Trail. Turn left. For the next half mile, the trail moves along the ridge, leading in and out of ravines at an elevation between 1,600 and 1,700 feet. As the trail leaves the last ravine, it ascends gently to a knoll, then turns right 90 degrees and descends to Purisima Creek far below.

The knoll provides an ideal viewpoint for a sunset hike. If you carefully time this hike, you can enjoy the sunset on your hike out, but the preserve closes half an hour after sunset: the gate is locked, and it’s a long walk home, so hurry on. You have just one half-hour to get back to your car before dark.

From the knoll, the Harkins Fire Trail drops steeply for a mile or so to the junction with Soda Gulch Trail. Soda Gulch is for hikers only. Equestrians and bicyclists must continue on Harkins Trail to the valley floor and Purisima Creek Road.

Once you hike the 2.4-mile Soda Gulch Trail, I think you will agree that it is one of the best hiking trails on the Peninsula. You begin your descent through chaparral and end in deep redwoods. You pass a wide-spreading tanbark oak tree and over rushing seasonal streams. As you walk, study the many examples of second-growth redwood trees that have received their life from the mother tree, now a stump, having fallen to the logger perhaps 100 years ago. You will also see some very large redwood trees, one of which is a double-trunked giant that was probably used to anchor cables for hauling logs from the steep slope. Look for the scarred bark on this tree, which is located near a split log bench at the trailside.

As you explore the ins and outs of Soda Gulch and No Name Gulch, I'm sure that you will resolve to visit this trail again soon. Try it in the summer to escape the heat under the dark, moist canopy of the redwoods. Or in the winter, when water is rushing down the canyons. Or in the spring, when wildflowers enliven the upper slopes and the tanbark oaks begin to leaf. Or in the fall, when the ecosystem is eagerly waiting for refreshing rains.

You can turn this hike into a 12-mile loop by taking the Purisima Creek Road to the trailhead at Higgins-Purisima Road, then hiking back up to Skyline via the Whittemore Gulch Trail. But note that the return trip involves an elevation gain of 1,600 feet and that this grand loop is 12 miles, requiring five to six hours of hiking time.

By the Way. . .

Hiking through Purisima Canyon, you can appreciate how the logging industry took hold of the redwood forest. By the early 1900s, the redwood trees of value were cut, reduced to shingles, carted to Redwood City, and barged to San Francisco. Some of the timber was hauled to Half Moon Bay for local construction, but since there was no reliable port along the coast, most redwood was hauled up and over Skyline to the Port of Redwood City.

A large flume project to bring water from high on Montara Mountain to the Crystal Springs Reservoir required 5 million feet of choice redwood, which was cut along Purisima Creek in the early 1870s. The flume was in service for some 20 years. It was abandoned in 1898 due to high maintenance costs and a limited water supply. The mill, which supplied lumber for the flume, was owned by partners George Borden and Rulfas Hatch. In all, eight lumber mills operated in Purisima Creek canyon between 1885 and 1920.

For more information on Tom Davids and the Weekly Walker, click here.