I was heading north to Mendocino County to join Sean and
Daryn the next day for a long hike. I waited until nearly
10a to leave San Jose to give rush hour traffic a chance to
die down, then spent the rest of the day hiking some summits
in Sonoma County. The longest was about 6mi roundtrip and I
hiked a little over 10mi total on the four outings. Weather
was a little warm for February, but overall fairly pleasant.
Cougar Mountain
This summit overlooks the Sonoma Raceway (formerly Sears
Point) at the junction of SR37 and SR121 on the north end of
the SF Bay. On most days, one can ask for permission at the
main entrance and be granted free entry after signing a
waiver. Today there was an event going on that had requested
the property be closed to the public. This was disappointing,
but my sad face and modest pleading yielded nothing but a
little sympathy from the attendant. I'm guessing some car
company was doing some test track driving/photo shoot and
didn't want prying eyes (and cameras) stealing pre-release
photos. I returned to the highway and drove north on SR121
to the back entrance gate, the one that goes around the
track periphery. This wide gravel road was about
1/4mi from the highway. I noted the gate was unsigned, so
simply , slipped under the fence and hiked up the
road, figuring I had
some plausible deniability.
A few trucks went by on the to the base of
the hill, but they didn't seem to care I was hiking on the
side of the road. A few other vehicles were driving around
the track, but they looked like small, mundane SUVs that I
had no interest in. I don't think they had to worry about
someone stealing their thunder.
At the base of the hill there is a of
periphery fence and an running up the grassy
slope that I followed to where a small,
shallow pond is found. I walked the periphery of the pond,
finding the
highpoint and at the southeast end.
are completely open in all directions but there was far too much
haze today, unfortunately. I
the way I came, seeing no other vehicles or people. Nice when
things work out after a minor setback.
Peak 916ft
This summit is found 4.5mi north of Cougar Mtn, just outside
. The park is still actively grazed
in all parts that I visited, not terribly bad since it meant
the grass was kept short and cross-country travel pretty
easy. I drove into the park,
and followed east across the broad Tolay Creek
(really a marsh).
A few classes of were making there way
back with teachers/parents/park ranger in tow, laughing and
dancing and having what seemed to be the time of their lives.
Beyond them, I met only a few other trail users. After about
2mi on the park trails, I passed through the first of
two unlocked gates to adjacent ranchlands, then
to the highpoint. A few small herds of merely watched
me go by, but since I didn't get too close none even
bothered to move away. There is at the rounded,
grassy summit but no views. I sat on a rock here and took
a short break in the shade of the trees - quite nice!
After returning to the park boundary, I continued
on to the nearby , the highest point in
the park. On clear days I suppose one can see three of the
Bay bridges, but today was very hazy and none could be seen.
I headed off this hill to , descending
cross-country for a nice shortcut to ,
cutting off more than half a mile from the ascent route.
Meacham Hill
This one is found just off US101 between Petaluma and Ronnert
Park. David Sanger reported getting permission from
to hike the hill from their wine-tasting building. I
was happy to find that permission was cheerfully granted when
I asked, only to find no easy way to get from
to the adjacent ranch property. A gate between them
was locked with warning of livestock dog on duty. I've
not had good luck with these in the past, so I decided not to
go over the fence. I guess I didn't want this one
that
badly.
Peak 860ft
This last peak is found in
north of
Santa Rosa. I had visited the park once before, only to find
it closed for PG&E work. Today it was busy with park users,
not utility workers and I had no issues. I followed a GPX
track posted by David, following to within
1/10th mile of the summit. I cut some off his track with a
more direct to the summit where a few
are found and . I found a small
at the base of the summit tree, left by another
visitor. I took a few and replaced it where I
found it. After to the car it was time to call it a
day since I still had a few more hours of driving into
Mendocino County.
Continued...