Ryan Says…

Most people know that one of the best things about living in Northern California is exploring the outdoors. Yet strangely, during the two years I’ve been living here, I hadn’t made a real effort to do so. So last weekend I went on a hiking and camping trip to Castle Rock (in the Santa Cruz mountains). It was actually the first time I’ve been camping for a long time.

I’ve gotta say, I was impressed. I thought nothing could beat my homeland (Australia), but this comes very close. Here are a few snapshots of the views:

This is a great hike for beginners. We took it very slowly and enjoyed the scenery, so the hike in to the camp site took about 2.5 hours. There are 25 campsites available (at $10 per night) - when we arrived there were only two others being used. We set up camp and had an enjoyable dinner (’Mountain House’ freeze dried beef stew - quite tasty) and a nice bottle of Penfolds 2001 South Australian Shiraz.

Sleeping in the middle of nature is an amazing experience, and was made more enjoyable because our tent had only an insect net over the top, so you could see the stars. But I’ll tell you what, it’s very LOUD. First you have the cacophony of crickets - these guys all have their different rhythms, some playing eigth notes, some quarter notes, and some half notes, with various combinations of rests. If they were all playing in the same tempo you would get some interesting music happening :) But as it was it was just a whole lot of noise, loud noise. These guys subside in the early hours of the morning and give way to all varieties of bird life singing their various songs. After sunrise they quiet down. Next were the rifle shots - there is a rifle range near the park, and early on a Sunday morning the sounds carry a long way. So from 9am until we left we got to enjoy the cracking of 22’s and 308’s (I guess). Reminded me of my old days with Sydney University Rifle Club.

After packing up we hiked out pretty quickly, taking only 1.5 hours this time. We took a different trail - the hike in was along the summit, and the hike out along a ridge. This gave us some spectacular views on the hike out, but also meant we spent a long time in the blazing sun. We had to stop at nearly every shady grove and pound down some water. Overall the ridge trail was probably more fun, you’re really on the edge of the mountain in places (as the photo below shows), but I would recommend doing both trails as we did.

Here’s my quick HOWTO guide if you want to try this hike for yourself:

1. Get yourself a big backpack (I rented one from REI for around $18 a day).
2. Pack your tent, sleeping bag, thermarest, food, wine, stove, utensils, change of clothes, sunscreen, insect repellant and water (there is water at the campsite so you only have to bring enough for the hike). Probably also a good idea to take some first aid supplies and a compass just in case.
3. Drive down to the camp site (location and info here).
4. Pay your $10 camping fee (and $1 for a map which is probably a good idea), and hike away!

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