[INSTALLMENT 9]
Just a 15 minute drive from the heart of San Jose, undisturbed Californian hills of Buckeye flowers, Goldenback ferns and crooked, hermit-like Oak trees rise to face the largely urban landscape. Fortunately for those living in the Bay Area, hiking trails are plentiful in spite of a suburban expanse, and protected spaces like these are sanctuaries for those with only a couple hours on an idle weekend to spare. Almaden Quicksilver Park, one among many of the diverse hiking trails surrounding the Silicon Valley, offers beautiful views of South San Jose: glimpses of the towering Downtown through oak fronds and coyote brush. For the ninth installment of The Daily Explorer, Mia Hanuska, along with Westmont students Sergio Macian and Sarah Ruebenson, join me on a 5.2 hike in Almaden Quicksilver in South San Jose, endeavoring towards the famed viewpoints at the top.
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Welcome back travelers, to The Daily Explorer. In this series, I travel (often with Journalism guests) to entertaining places within the Bay Area. With these accounts, I hope to inspire the readers of The Shield to explore their hometown and demonstrate that there’s always something new to explore.
Keep an eye out for some of your favorite writers from The Shield, as they may accompany me on these adventures in the future. If you have any favorite places, restaurants, parks, etc, please email me at emi.gruender@gmail.com to issue a recommendation. Your name and input about the place in question will be credited.
Without further ado, buckle up and enjoy the blog-style ride of The Daily Explorer!
FRIDAY, February 21
11:05 am, The Adventure Begins
Blessed with the free hours that ski-week so graciously provides, I woke up at 9:00 am on this sunny Friday morning. After getting ready, (and a small miscommunication in the groupchat about arrival times) I set out in my freshly-washed and vacuumed Toyota Prius to pick up Mia Hanuska, and make our way farther south.
Almaden Quicksilver, as we were both surprised to find, lies only a short 15 minute drive away from Campbell: a hidden protected oasis of natural California wildlife in the middle of this sprawling urban expanse. When we finally found the other two waiting near the neighborhood-facing entrance, we set out. Unfortunately for Sarah, everyone else had decided to wear a white top, to which we joked that Sarah “missed out on the memo.”
11:50 pm, Only 1.4 Miles?
We started our hike through the rolling hills. Though Puxatawny Phil declared that winter would last 6 more weeks, the grass was already starting to sprout, and the few cherry blossoms we passed were in full bloom. At a balmy 75 degrees, we shucked off our redundant winter coats and enjoyed the sunlight. The hike was mostly uphill for a long while, and when the path did diverge, we spent much too long at each crossroads trying to make sense of the directions.
Just an hour into our hike, we had only hiked 1.4 miles— and had already stopped for several breaks. At one point, Sergio had to carry Mia over a muddy patch because she had made the incredible decision to wear stark-white shoes on a hike. If a mountain lion decided to come and eat us, we decided, it would not have to put up much of a fight.
12:16 pm, Log Time
There were several branches off the main path—more rabbit trails and wanderings of small children than anything substantial, but we followed as many as we could find. One of these led us to a cloudy creek, prefaced by a fallen tree and dappled sunlight. No excursion into nature could be complete without sitting on a log, so we did just that. We sat there on the log for quite some time, arguing about how chopsticks are indeed a valid utensil, despite some people’s reservations. It’s not my fault that Sergio doesn’t know how to use chopsticks and instead insists on “fork supremacy.”
12:49 pm, Attempted Diplomacy
Let me revise my further statements: if there were any mountain lions around, waiting for an opportunity to pounce, they would have been too frightened to approach due to our incessant chattering backed by full-volume instrumental music from Lord of the Rings. Our conversations meandered from the red-headed vultures circling above to crude jokes about the Internet as we continued gaining altitude. Soon, we looked over the Guadalupe Reservoir, where we saw a group of adolescents around our age fishing near the water.
I tried waving my hand and yelling to get their attention, until they saw us on the outcropping. I didn’t hear what they were saying, but suddenly Sergio and Mia were pulling us away, because those adolescents were, in fact, yelling slurs at us. What fun.
1:53 pm, Back To The Beginning
Despite our clear lack of map-reading skills, we eventually found ourselves back on the path on which we had started— successfully completing a 5.2 mile loop at the crown of Almaden Quicksilver. As we retraced our steps on paper, we realized how pathetic our path must have been, seeing as we had explored little to nothing of the true breadth of the park. Perhaps next time, we mused, we can return for a more rigorous hike. But for now, we were hungry— and Chick-Fil-A was the next destination.
3:03 pm, Chick-Fil-A Sucks
Chick-Fil-A sucks. There. I said it. Today was the first day I had ever tried Chick-Fil-A chicken, and I hated it. The servings were small! The chicken tasted funny! The milkshakes were chunky! Despite the frankly disappointing meal, we regained our energy after our long haul, and it was a satisfying end to our fun outing. Though, admittedly, Sergio and Sarah are not Journalism students, I enjoyed this destination of the Daily Explorer, nonetheless.
PHOTO ALBUM:
THE VERDICT:
- Don’t pack thick winter jackets when going on a sunny hike!
- Even though the fields simply call to you for frolicking, beware of ticks.
- Don’t go to Chick-Fil-A. It sucks.
Join me in the next issue for yet another adventure, hopefully somewhere with an actually good restaurant to visit afterwards.
Signing off until next issue,
The Daily Explorer