For the second day in a row, I drove out to Half Moon Bay to do some obscure peakbagging in San Mateo County. Unlike yesterday's longish outing, today's was a trio of much shorter ones. With heavy fog again, it was nearly as wet today as yesterday, the main difference being I didn't have to spend all day in sopping boots.
Whale BM
Sandwiched between the Pacific Ocean and the airport at HMB, this squat ridge northwest of the harbor has it's southern tip ending at Pillar Point. Just offshore is the site of the famous Mavericks surf contest, held sometime in the winter months during years when conditions are right after a Pacific storm. Much of the land including the highpoint are preserved by the Pennisula Open Space Trust (POST) as the Pillar Point Bluff County Park. There are several parking lots providing access to the network of trails along the bluffs. I used the
trailhead off Airport Rd, just north of a 
mobile home park
on the east side. A
trail climbs up the bluffs from that side, reaching the flattish highpoint in
short order. I had no luck locating the benchmark which is either buried in the
flora or no longer exists. It seems a small pool-sized section of earth was
removed here by bulldozer long ago, leaving a small wetlands atop the ridge.
I followed 
the trails out to the bluff and then south about halfway to
Pillar Point, home to a USAF installation. 
The bluffs are badly
eroded with abundant signs to warn one away from the cliff edges where the
trail is unstable. Of course I couldn't help walking up to the edge for a look
in at least a few places. I imagine this place gets pretty crowded when the
surf contest is in session. On a Sunday it was busy with a few dozen folks
with dogs or family, a few on bikes.
Half Moon Bay State Beach HP
This point is found off Hwy 1, just across the highway from Frenchmans Creek Rd. Jim Retemeyer, who I suspect submitted this to PB, claims quite specifically that the highpoint is just inside the
group camping gate,
next to a wooden fence. I wandered around inside for a few minutes, but it
would be impossible by any means to determine the highpoint. 
The ground
is virtually
flat and covered in waist-high vines, downfall, poison oak and other shrubbery
that covers everything. By almost any definition, this is a very lame "summit".
Peak 580ft
Just southeast of the town of Half Moon Bay rises this modest summit overlooking Hwy 1 and the Pacific Ocean. I used directions provided by Andrew Kirmse and David Sanger who had visited the place a year earlier. Their starting point at the historic
Johnston House is a good one. The house and
surrounding land is
owned by POST. The home is open only one day a month, but parking is allowed
during daylight hours other days. I thought it would be easy to find the use
trail and didn't bother to download their GPX track. As it turns out, the trail
is only distinct higher up and I ended up climbing 2/3 of the way to the summit
before finding the 
good use trail. On the way back I followed the
trail until it curved west towards a pair of small, 
picturesque ponds
before mostly
disappearing. This resulted in some minor traversing across the lower stretches
to get me back to the parking lot. Interestingly, both up and down routes nearly
recreated their GPX track. Marcus Sierra has a GPX track on PB as well and it
would seem we all did pretty much the same thing. Just before reaching the
highpoint, the trail cuts through a high brush barrier and dumps one on a dirt
road on the other side. This is almost certainly private property, but there
are no signs or fences. A short walk through tall grass on the other side of
the road leads to 
the rounded highpoint. A 
deer I found here
stared at me for some time
without moving. As I'd already reached the highpoint and had no reason to scare
it off, I retreated to leave it with the tactical highground. Views were
marginal due to the fog but probably aren't that great with sunshine given the
low stature of the summit and its rounded nature.
Peak 1,463ft
Located in Purisima Creek State Park, this summit can be reached from below starting at the end of Purisima Creek Rd, or above from SR35. I chose the latter, using a GPX track I got off PB from Colin Gregory. The trailhead is some 500ft higher than the summit, which can be a little discouraging as one hikes down, down, down, knowing you have a nice climb out at the end. The
parking lot
was completely full when I arrived after 11a - not surprising for
a Sunday, but there's more paking available along the highway.
There are a number of trails in the park, most open to mountain
bikers but a few restricted to 
hikers only.
The North Ridge trail takes one
down to a saddle with Peak 1,463ft about 1.5mi from the TH. There were dozens
of parties on the trail, surprisingly popular I thought, given the foggy
conditions. Based on the rain forest-type flora found along the trail enroute,
I expected the off-trail part for the last 1/5mi to be tough. Thankfully,
it was fairly easy and took only a few minutes. As reported, the summit has no
views whatsover, but it does sport some large, 
moss-covered trees
that make you expect to see Yoda pop out from around 
the corner any
second. Mmmm. The summit seeks another peakbagger does? When I got back
to 
the TH around 12:45p, there were 3 fire dept trucks, an ambulance
and a park ranger truck,
the occupants standing around discussing an incident with maps. Not sure what
the emergency might have been, but most likely a mountain biker-related injury.
Some of these trails are steep, can be slick when wet and it's pretty easy to
go flying off the side if you're just a little less than careful...
Continued...