Sunol Regional Wilderness 2015-08-21

We were back at Sunol Regional Wilderness for the third time, our previous visits were to Little Yosemite area and Maguire Peak. We used the same staging area that we did for Little Yosemite, parking by the Visitor Center on Geary Rd (off Hwy 680 / Calaveras Rd).

My intent was to hike the Flag Hill trail and more today. From the parking lot, after crossing over the bridge, we turned left walking along Alameda creek. The junction for the trail showed up quickly enough, but there was a trail going ahead that wasn’t marked in the map. Curiosity got the better of me and I took that trail. It led to a gate demarking cattle grazing area with a scenic spot by the creek on the other side. We spent some time exploring the spot and started walking by the creek.

I knew this wasn’t a formal trail. But the walk by the creek was shaded and inviting. A very young calf stopped nursing as we approached it; with the cow and the calf giving us a cautious look, we went past them. I saw a rough dirt road come up on our right and continued on it. While it wasn’t a mapped trail, this road opened up to a nice large hillside that wasn’t difficult to climb.

I suspect that Flag Hill was on our left as we made our way through the hillside. Before long, I realized that we’d walked more than 2 miles into the cattle grazing wilderness area. Along the way, in addition to cattle grazing, we also saw deer in the open and they ran away as soon as they realized they had company.

Turnaround point

I presumably could’ve continued ahead with the hope of catching one of the named trails. But the terrain became somewhat steep and more wooded that I decided not to continue the wilderness exploration any longer. With no map and cell phone coverage, I essentially used few landmarks I’d memorized to retrace our step cross checking with the GPS map that Sports Tracker utility drew along the way.

Apollo was off leash much of this walk, thanks to the dog friendly rules in EBPRD. By the time we were back on Flag Hill trail, we’d already hiked 4.5+ miles, so I decided to wrap the walk with the Shady Glen trail loop.  Shady Glen is a single track dirt trail little more than ½ mile long. It connects to Hayward Rd and loops back to the trail head by the Visitor Center.

Going off trails is not recommended in general and discouraged/prohibited in certain parks. What we did though was use reasonably well-formed trails in the cattle grazing hillside. Our unplanned 5.3 mile excursion in the wilderness was absolutely enjoyable and will probably work for those with a sense of adventure.

More pictures from our hike.

#Hiking #HikingWithDogs #SunolWilderness #SunolRegionalWilderness #ShadyGlenTrail #EBRPD