1) Pick a day with warm weather.
3) Seal everything you don't want to get wet in plastic bags that seal shut (sandwich bags).
4) Wear water shoes or old running/tennis shoes that can get wet. Sand and gravel make sandals uncomfortable. One member of our group wore gators which kept sand out of her shoes.
5) Use a hiking stick to stay vertical while walking on the uneven creek bed.
Our group, which consisted of some of my College of San Mateo students, carpooled from the Woodside town hall parking lot. We drove to the parking lot at the Hoffman Fat Trailhead on Wurr Road, which is between San Mateo County Memorial Park and Pescadero Creek County Park southwest of the town of La Honda in the Santa Cruz Mountains. We then walked about 2.1 miles east on the Old Haul Road trail and turned left on the Shaw Flat Trail, which heads downhill to the creek. We ate lunch on the banks of Pescadero Creek before embarking on our trek.
Despite the draught, there was plenty of water in the creek. The day was warm and the cool water felt wonderful. We saw lots of crawdads (crayfish) and small fish in the creek. A magnificent display of tiger lilies awaited us on the north bank. Three members of our party left the expedition where Pomponio Trail crosses the creek. The rest of us continued, with a stop to swim in a deep pool.
I learned some important lessons about Creek Freaking. It took us about an hour to walk the Old Haul Road trail to where we entered the creek. It took about five hours to return by way of the creek. Part of the reason is that we stopped twice to swim, and part of it is because the creek meanders a lot more than the trail. But the main reason it takes so much longer is that we walked a lot slower on the rocky and uneven creek bed than we would on a trail. A good rule of thumb is to think of one mile of Creek Freaking as equivalent to four miles of trail walking. If I conduct this outing again I would start at the Towne Fire Road creek crossing instead of the Shaw Flat crossing.
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