Our last full day in California dawned bright and sunny - another perfect Fall day. We took the scenic drive out to the Big Basin Redwoods State Park. Not only was it scenic but also reminiscent of being in England as we drove along Highway 35 - an almost single lane road winding along the wooded ridge before dropping down to the aptly named Bear Creek Road. Arriving at the Park we were, for the first time this trip, thwarted as far as finding free parking was concerned! However, we have enjoyed a lot of visits to beautiful state and county parks during this holiday so finally handing over a $10 day use parking fee seemd entirely appropriate.
We set off through the redwoods crossing the Opal Creek and beginning to climb up through the forest occasionally overtaking a few hikers but for the most part enjoying complete solitude. We were both surprised by the beauty of this area which is easily as striking as Muir Woods or the redwoods of Humboldt county and equally surprised that in all our visits to San Jose we have never found our way here beforehand. This was my perfect location - my favourite running is through the forest with the sun filtering through the trees and an enticing trail snaking ahead begging to be followed. I was so pleased that we had found such a great place to conclude our holiday.
The trail zig zagged up through the trees crossing the Middle Ridge fire road and then picking up and following Kelly Creek, a tributary to the West Waddell Creek which runs down to the coast. For today however, the point where the creeks intercept was also the point at which we turned to the north to follow the watercourse along the Berry Falls trail stopping en route to admire the waterfalls and even having to negotiate mud in a few places - not something we have encountered much of in the past 2 months!
The falls and creek are named for a lumberman, Tilford George Berry who lived the life of a hermit on the banks of the trail and who disappeared in 1870 never to be seen again. Some 25 years later, whilst strolling through a chaparral near Boulder Creek, a doctor came across a perfectly preserved skeleton with Berry's gun leaning against it and a single bullet through the head.
After the strenuous climb to the top of the falls we turned onto the Sunset Trail which would eventually lead us back down to Big Basin and, emerging briefly from the trees into bright sunshine, ran through a landscape that could have been Meditterranean with white slabs of rock and low lying scrub alongside the path.
Shortly afterwards we re entered the woods and the more familiar terrain and this is where our perfect day took a downturn. A momentary lack of concentration and I turned my ankle on a tree root bringing me to an immediate stop in excrutiating pain. Martin very helpfully told me that I'd definitely broken my ankle and was told quite impolitely to keep his opinions to himself! Past experience has proved that if you can possibly keep moving on a sprained ankle it seems to help in the long run (hobble!) and as we were still 4 miles away from our starting point this is what I did. Once the inital pain subsided it didn't feel too bad and I was hopeful that I may have got away without any serious damage but I was so cross with myself for spoiling a lovely run and especially on our last day.
It took us about an hour to finish the loop and even in my state of mind it was hard not to enjoy the beauty of the forest. Due to a slightly late start and the slow rate of progress after my accident it was 2.30pm by the time we got back to the car and any plans we had for the afternoon's entertainment (slack lining!) were abandoned. Instead we took an even more scenic drive back following Highway 9 up to Skyline Boulevard at the Saratoga Gap, stopping numerous times to enjoy vista points and note the trail heads for the Skyline to the Sea trail which we are definitely going to do next time - if I can manage to avoid tree roots and other such dangers!
Back at Erica Court we belatedly iced, compressed and elevated my ankle - which although puffy was not too badly swollen and showed no signs of bruising - until it was time to go out for our final farewell dinner with Sherry and Rich. This found us back in downtown Campbell at the Rock Bottom Brewery and Restaurant, another excellent choice of venue, where we all enjoyed salmon fish and chips with apple coleslaw and some of us aso tried the sampler selection of hand crafted beers. Despite the great food, beer and company the evening was tinged with sadness at the thought of our imminent departure which we tried to offset by discussing plans for our next visit ................
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