Henry Miller Trail, McCabe Ridge Trail, Skyline-to-the-Sea Loop
Amy and I headed up to Big Basin Park Headquarters, driving up our favorite mountain road, highway 9 early in the morning. The weekend haul up highway 9 is usually a Sunday driver nightmare, with tourists putt-putt-putting along at 10 mph, unwilling to let us pass. We left early enough to beat all of them this morning. As we wound up and down the Santa Cruz mountains, we admired the gorgeous weather. It was to be even more beautiful as the day progressed. We planned a 13 mile hike through Big Basin Park looping around on the Henry Miller Trail and continuing on to McCabe Ridge Trail, and finishing the loop hiking up a part of the famous Skyline-to-the-Sea trail. At Big Basin Park headquarters, you start on the Redwood Trail, where you negotiate a labyrinth of trail intersections, and eventually find yourslf on the Henry Miller Trail. This hiking is a gradual ascent under the shadiness of redwood forest. The temperture was brisk at 8am, and Amy insisted we get moving quickly to warm up. We hiked quickly and found ourselves on a a fire road that will eventually hit McCabe Ridge. The road hike was quite nice, but we wanted a smaller, narrower trail to hike on. We chose to hike on a side trail instead which gave us a great view that allowed us a little tiny view of the ocean. Having chosen so, we stretched our hike out a couple miles. Make it a 15 mile hike. The McCabe Ridge trail was my favorite part. We hit that at about hour 2, so the sun wasn't going to blast us. The trail descends along this trail, at times pretty steeply. First, we walked among brush at the top of the trail, which eventually descends back down under the canopy of redwood and eventually down to Waddell Creek. We moved quickly, and made it into the shade before the heat of the high sun. We reached our planned lunch spot. Neither of us were very hungry. I felt the buzzing of mosquitos and decided that moving on would be a good call. The rest of the hike would be a very gradual ascent. We started trucking, making what seemed to be very good time. We passed the first of a long line of hikers, and backpackers hiking through. The Skyline-to-the-Sea portion of our hike would prove to extremely busy. We hiked against traffic for the rest of the day. We passed every type of hiker. The scout troop, the indian couple, the frat guys, the high schooler nerds, the asian college students, the solo-outdoor chick, the programmers, the perfect 2.5 kid family, the sierra club hikers, the grandparents, the photographer, the solo-moutain man, the wide-brim hat family, ... Every shape size, color, creed... South bay hikers are a very eclectic, diverse group of people. The final leg of this hike seemed endless. Having opted out of taking a lunch break, our energy levels began to dip sharply. We each grubbed a power bar, and Amy ate some seeds and munched from her block o' tofu. After what seemed like an eternity of hiking we finally began to feel the rush of civilization. Shouts from kids and chinese tourists introduced us to the end of our Big Basin day hike as we approached the bustling parking lot. 5 hours on the trail, drenched in sweat, hungry. REI was having their Scratch 'n Dent sale today. It is on the way home. I DO need a new knife,...
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