A Rainy/Sunny Hike on Portola Valley Trails

Thirteen of my De Anza College students braved the weather as we set out yesterday for a 6.7 mile loop hike that took us across Coal Mine Ridge in Portola Valley and back by way of Alpine Road and Windy Hill Open Space Preserve.

Despite a steady rain that fell when our class gathered at the trailhead at the intersection of Alpine Road & Willowbrook Drive in Portola Valley, the majority voted to go ahead with the field trip. Fortunately, the rain let up and the remainder of the day was a combination of sunny, cloudy, and rainy.

We followed the Old Spanish Trail along Coal Mine Ridge, which also follows the San Andreas Fault to three sag ponds formed where the land sags at curves in the fault. Some of the students played on a swing attached to an oak limb before we stopped for lunch at one of the ponds. Along the way we enjoyed many wild flowers, including Solomons seal, mission bells, buttercups, sun cups, tomcat clover, owls clover, Indian warrior, lupine, wild onion, poppies, and trillium. The oak woodland is forested with white oaks, live oaks, black oaks, madrone, bay laurel, and big-leaf maple.

After lunch we headed south on the Lake Trail to Alpine Road, which took us downhill as we paralleled raging Corte Madera Creek. This part of Alpine Road is narrow and a dead end, so there is little traffic. We then took the Eagle Trail, which parallels Alpine Road, and then crossed a bridge and turned right on the first trail on the other side of the creek. To get back to the trailhead just take every right turn through Windy Hill Open Space Preserve.

TO GET THERE... From Highway 280 take Alpine Road south. Park on the north side of Alpine Road near the Willowbrook Drive intersection. You can park along Willowbrook if the parking lot is full.