Memorable Memorial Day Walk

After eating our way through much of this long weekend, Julie sat down with her Bay Area Hiking Trails book Sunday evening to find a way to burn off a few calories.  Finally, she stumbled upon hike #29 - Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Reserve.

The location is along Skyline Boulevard which is at the ridgeline of the Santa Cruz mountain range that separates Silicon Valley from the Pacific Ocean.  In the picture below, that's Half Moon Bay (and the ocean) in the background.

You can see from the picture that (again) it was an overcast day.  I'm starting to think we live in the Pacific Northwest with all these overcast and windy days we are experiencing. However, we came to find out that it was a pleasant temperature for a 10 mile hike.

The Reserve is known for its tall coastal redwood trees.  And, as it turns out - where there are redwoods there are pacific banana slugs.  These beauties are the second-largest species of terrestrial slugs in the world and have been observed to motate at a maximum speed of around 6 inches per minute.   I'll believe that when I see it.  I think a much more reliable speed reading is about 6 inches an HOUR.  Maybe.

That 'hole' in the side of their head is the intake manifold for their single lung.  Come to think of it, it does kind of look like one nostril.

 
The trail looked like a big V in elevation.  We started by plunging down from the top of Skyline into the gulches of the park.  Each downward step we took lodged in our mind as a step we would eventually have to take uphill!  The middle section of the hike meanders up and down through the redwoods and oaks providing ample shade (from the mostly non-existent sun).  The trail ends with a difficult 2 miles of near straight uphill climbing covering about 1600' of elevation.  It was good to have our friends the Scotts along for the hike - because then there were enough people to take turns coming up with excuses to stop and take a break while we were trudging our way back to the top.

As with every epic adventure - we got though the tough times by a) calculating how many calories we MUST be burning and b) fantasizing about what those burned calories meant we could eat if we lived through it.  So, after we finished it was off to The Boardwalk for pizza, soda and some reminiscing.  Okay.. #29 is off the bucket list.  Moving on ;)