Six adventurous Hike-o-Raptors met at 9:00 AM on Memorial Day at the Clyde Woolridge staging area in Anthony Chabot Regional park. The weather cooperated with a cool, overcast day, so we didn’t have to worry about overheating.
Our route took us down the Jackson Grade to the stone bridge, where we turned south onto the Brandon trail. No-one was fazed by the steep climb up Cottonwood to Redwood Road. At the top, we turned north on Redtail trail and successfully located the “hole in the hedge” trail that appears on All Trails but not on the EBRPD map of Anthony Chabot park. This took us out to Redwood Road itself, where everyone followed strict instructions to walk in single file along the road for a few hundred yards. We then crossed the road to pick up Soaring Hawk trail on the east side of Redwood Road. Despite the low clouds, we still had breathtaking views of the San Leandro reservoir and the bay, so we stopped for photos and to enjoy the wildflowers. We then made our way down to Bort Meadow with its welcome bathrooms and picnic tables. Suitably refreshed, we were energized to ascend Buckeye trail to Goldenrod, which skirted Skyline, taking us to Jalquin and back to Clyde Woolridge. A herd of goats were busily chowing down on grass and weeds along the way, and we noticed in the adjacent area, where they had been the week before, that they’d eaten everything except the straw and poison oak.
We were exceedingly lucky with this hike – none of the tree work that had closed some of our route the previous week was underway. We saw very few other hikers – the cool temperatures must have convinced some to hike later in the day. We clocked 7.5 miles and 1260 feet of elevation gain, but no-one seemed to be challenged by the route. As an added bonus, we traveled some trails that were unfamiliar to some of the group. And the conversations were wonderful!
