Getting Out: The road follows a creek bed as it rises gently
through a narrow ravine. Willows were beginning to leaf out by the
creek on the right and buckeyes were doing the same on the grassy
slopes. High above were impressive granite outcroppings, like those
seen along Highway 101 south of San Juan Bautista.
A month ago I wrote about a walk along Old Stage Road that twists its way over the shoulder of Fremont Peak between San Juan Bautista and the very north end of Salinas. A friend who came on our New Year’s Day hike at Rancho Canada del Oro told me how much she enjoyed her walks there and that I should check it out. So, I did.
But after reading my account of our hike there, she sent me an e-mail saying, that as far as she was concerned, I had walked in from the wrong side. We had started in San Juan Bautista, and she walks it from the Salinas side.
Monday morning my eyes opened early, and once the mental wheels began spinning, I knew there would be no more sleep. After a quick Starbucks stop, I headed south on Highway 101.
Just before Prunedale, at the hilltop past Aromas, I turned left on Crazy Horse Canyon Road and followed it to the end at Old Stage Road. A right turn would have taken me south along the eastern edge of the Salinas Valley as far as Chualar — an intriguing drive for another day — but I turned left and twisted three miles up a lovely valley past a succession of ranches and farms to the gate at the end of the road.
The road follows a creek bed as it rises gently through a narrow ravine. Willows were beginning to leaf out by the creek on the right and buckeyes were doing the same on the grassy slopes. High above were impressive granite outcroppings, like those seen along Highway 101 south of San Juan Bautista.
Coast live oak trees usually grow and branch out in a fairly conventional pattern, unlike the gnarled twisty-turny branches that we see on valley oaks. But when they are sculpted over time by wind, they can develop quite a personality. Coastal winds must rake these slopes, because the groves here are inhabited by trees with wind-pruned trunks reaching out in strange anguished patterns. Add a little fog and Alfred Hitchcock is in business.
As I rose higher, I could see the morning light warm the bare hilltops, and the cool wind that had been racing down the mountain began to ease. On this side of the hill, I expected to see views across the Salinas Valley and out toward Monterey Bay, but the narrow canyon limited my outlook to the slopes on each side.
At two miles out, the road reached the divide that separates the San Juan side from the Salinas side. In an instant the cool blue morning I had been walking through ignited into a bright warm day. Rather than the views to the south I expected, a sweeping vista across the Hollister valley opened up.
From here, I could see the route I had walked a month before and understand the trail’s full reach. It is about four and a half miles up and over a single divide from the San Juan gate to the Salinas gate. Each side has its merits; the San Juan Bautista side is brighter and more open, twisting up through open pastures, the Salinas side more intimate as it edges up the canyon.
From either side, Old Stage Road is a great walk, especially if you are looking for a place to get out with your dog. All the ones I met on the trail all gave it an enthusiastic paws-up.
Allow me to plug a class I will be giving through Gavilan College Community Education called “Backpacking for the Outdoor Enthusiast.” If you have thought of backpacking, but don’t know where to start, this two-hour class is for you. For details, go to http://gavilan.augusoft.net, click “Courses,” then under “Leisure,” click “Outdoors.”
