Purisima Creek Redwoods

Banana Slug!

This afternoon Dad Julia and I did part of a Bay Area Ridge trail in the Purisima Creek Redwoods OPS. 

 We saw 281 Banana slugs!!... I'm Banana slugged out! We just started counting and didn't stop. The hike is a 5.7 mile hike, in the beginning straight down hill and was quite rough since dad almost broke his ankle twice I took a slip but didn't fall. After a mile or two it started to flatten out a little bit, and we got into the Redwoods that's where the fun started to begin that was the best part of the hike, Julia said "Banana slug mecca." Who knows how much today? Then that's when the 1.8 of just straight up hill began we hiked over a hour up hill. This was a fun hike and I would definitely do it again. Even though we've hiked part of it before. We all had a lot of fun!

Purisima Creek Redwoods

5.7 miles

We started at the north end of the open space preserve and traveled south. Both the beginning and the end are steep fire roads that lead down to the creek and aren't much. It's the middle part of the trail that is the real gem. Lush redwoods, ferns, sorrel (clover), bridges, banana slugs make the mundane beginning and end worthwhile. Probably better to go south to north as you will be rewarded with nice views of Half Moon Bay towards the end instead of right off the bat. Second-growth redwoods, tanoaks, trail littered with big leaf yellow maple leaves on parts. It started out chillier than expected, we did a car shuttle with Julia, it was only 35 minutes away for her, a little more for us. Chaparral at beginning. Trail climbs 1000 feet right for last 1.8 miles. Soda Gulch Creek. This is a 10 in the middle and a 3 at the beginning and ends, so about a 6. This was the 2nd trail I've done on the Bay Area Ridge Trail. It took 3 leisurely hours. 11/27/12

Mark Pederson