With my daughter playing a volleyball match in Salinas, I decided to get
there via SR17
and Santa Cruz in order to spend a few hours beforehand putzing around some of
the minor bumps in the area that I had missed on my visit a few weeks earlier.
They turned out better than I had expected, though by no means anything that
could be recommended. Views were non-existent or limited, but still there was
some fun to be had.
Peak 940ft
This unnamed summit lies within the town limits of Scotts Valley on the west
side of Hwy 17. It's a more rural part of the community with homes peppered
about through the redwoods that cover much of the hillsides. Approaching it from
the north I was taken by an embankment of sand at a turn in the road
(junction of Whispering Pines Dr and Blueberry Dr). Hard-packed, with graffiti
carved into the cliffs, it was vaguely familiar. I then remembered that Mark
Connell, one of my first climbing partners, had lived here some 20 year ago
before moving to Colorado, and I had stopped by once to pick him up on our way
to the Ventanas. I couldn't pick out which house was his, but it was somewhere
very close. I parked at the end of Blueberry Drive away from the No Parking
signs that littered the cul-de-sac, in front of another, smaller
sand embankment found here. I went to the end of the cul-de-sac and
started up on what appeared to be a faint use or deer trail, going steeply up
the north-facing slope in search of high ground. Some poison oak was
encountered, but not enough to be a deterrent. I skirted one home before landing
atop the ridgeline above the sand embankment. A large concrete structure
is found here,
likely a water tank. Just above this tank is one of two highpoints for Peak
940ft, both of roughly equal height. The second is about a fifth of a mile to
the south and I headed through the trees in search of it. Just below the ridge
on the west side is an old logging road and I dropped onto it to follow
it for easier travel. It turns out to be part of a small network of trails
between the various homes. Good spur trails branch off from this road,
one of them leading to the southern highpoint where I found a sign
from the Hidden Glen Homeowners Assoc. There were short, unsigned
wooden posts planted at the various trail
junctions as well. A dog could be heard barking while I was at the summit,
annoyed at my presence so close to his home a short distance away through the
trees. After a brief visit, I set out to explore the various branches of the
trail network, hiking a little over a mile in the process. For the most part
the homes are out of view from the trails themselves, or mostly blocked by
trees, and the trail provides a nice forest experience. The branches I explored
either ended at a home from which I quickly retreated, or one of
the roads within the Hidden Glen development. The loveliest part was a
trail through a shady glen with a small creek, dry this time of year.
It was a nice little unexpected treat to a summit with no other distinction
(and zero views).
Hogsback
This small summit lies in the center of Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park,
between Scotts Valley and UC Santa Cruz. It is less than a quarter mile from
SR9. The highway is twisty and narrow here, but there are ample parking spots
off the road. The only trick is that it's not one of the usual entrances to
the park and in fact is signed as Area Closed. The Roaring Camp
Railroad runs between the highway and Hogsback, and they'd like to
keep folks off the tracks as much as possible. I parked just west of
where the railroad crosses the road, dropping down the embankment to the tracks,
walking a short distance along them, and then picking up a convenient
use trail to the top of Hogsback. Again, no
views, but the use trail saved some thrashing through the underbrush (some
poison oak found here, but not too bad). The highlight would have been having
a train come through while I was there, but I was a bit late - perhaps another
time (later I checked, the only train this time of year during the week is at
11a).
La Corona
This small summit, not even 500ft in height, is located in De Laveaga Park in
Santa Cruz. The summit is part of a disc golf course that is quite extensive
and popular. There were dozens of guys walking around with their little
shoulder bags of discs. To a non-enthusiast, it looks so pretentious with each
player carrying a selection of a dozen or more discs from which to choose from.
Are they really all necessary? Wasn't disc golf started as an alternative to
the expense and pretentiousness of regular golf? To get to the closest parking
area, one drives first through the more conventional
De Laveaga Golf Course and Lodge before reaching the parking lot
for the disc golf course. Parking is $2, but there appears to be other free
parking options nearby. The disc golf course would be far nicer if it
wasn't so brown and barren. Though
there are plenty of trees, there is also a lot of dirt, roots, and errosion
that must be an awful mess when it rains. I suppose it's part of Santa Cruz
doing its part in a drought. A short hike through the course gets one to the top
of La Corona where a memorial bench is located and a
view south
overlooking Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay. Not much else to this one.
Peak 1,100ft
The Mystery Spot
is a Santa Cruz landmark located a few miles north of De
Laveaga Park. As a tourist trap it ranks right up there with Humboldt's Trees
of Mystery, but its weirdness seems to be quite popular - you can regularly
spot its bumper stickers all over the state. A few more miles north of the
Mystery Spot is unnamed summit, Peak 1,100ft. Unfortunately I was not able to
find a reasonable route to the summit from Granite Creek Road on the east side.
The two closest roads were both private, and the more promising of the two that
I drove up branched off to individual homes before ending in front of several
more at the uppermost part of the hillside. This was a little too much
trespassing for my liking and I turned around without even getting out of the
car. Seems I'll have to do more investigating to see if it can't be approached
from the west side. I was out of time today, needing to head to Salinas for a
6:30p start time...