Rare snowfall dusts local peaks and provides snowball
makings
Last weekend most residents of San Benito and Santa Clara
counties were less than an hour away from a winter wonderland. Both
Fremont Peak and Henry W. Coe state parks were dusted with enough
snow for snowball fights, snowflake snacks or a moderate winter
hike filled with Kodak moments.
Rare snowfall dusts local peaks and provides snowball makings
Last weekend most residents of San Benito and Santa Clara counties were less than an hour away from a winter wonderland. Both Fremont Peak and Henry W. Coe state parks were dusted with enough snow for snowball fights, snowflake snacks or a moderate winter hike filled with Kodak moments.
Hundreds of people from Salinas to San Francisco ascended the local peaks where park rangers and volunteers were waiting to accommodate the annual excitement.
“This is about the only place to get to the snow where they don’t close the roads,” said Victor Bubbett, a Coe Park volunteer from San Jose commenting on the closing of Mt. Hamilton Road at Grant Ranch County Park to keep the roads from being clogged by South Bay snow-seekers. Bubbett was patrolling the trails where the snowfall occurred to “keep people from tobogganing with trash can lids” and other such possibly destructive behavior.
Kelly Quirke and Stephanie Alston of San Francisco were camping at Coe Park with their dog Lucky Louie Love Hound, an animal rescued from New Orleans.
Louie ran around sniffing the snow in what Alston and Quirke were sure was his first experience with the cold, white powder.
“This ain’t New Orleans!” said Quirke giving a voice to Louie’s new experience.
The couple hadn’t expected any extreme weather and were surprised by the overnight arrival. “It was like it was raining – but dry,” said Alston.
The Coe Park’s Visitor Center and Headquarters, which lie at 2,640 feet, received 1.5 inches of snow this weekend. A 5-10 minute up-hill hike from the visitor’s center on the Monument Trail put snow-seekers at 3,041 feet, above the magic 3,000-foot line where snow is common a couple times a year.
In Barry Breckling’s 28 years at Henry Coe Park there have only been two, maybe three years when the snow didn’t “stick,” or stay on the ground for a significant amount of time.
“We usually get about three-four snowfalls a year, that drop about three to four inches and give about 3-4 days of snow,” said Breckling generalizing the annual weather cycles.
Gavilan College students Michael and Natalie Haynes brought their two kids, 4-year-old Michael Jr. and 1-year-old Hailey, to Coe Park on the word of Michael’s father that there would be snow.
“I thought he was just joshing us,” said Natalie. “I thought we’d have to lie about it – ‘there was tons of snow!'”
The snow hunting Morgan Hill family was going to go to Castle Rock State Park in the Santa Cruz mountains above Los Gatos, but opted for a closer and probably less crowded Coe Park.
At 3,169 feet, Fremont Peak got many visitors from nearby Salinas where some watched the peak grow white through a webcam at the top of the peak.
Sandy Fisher of San Juan Bautista brought his son, Diego, 7, and cousins, Jose Zendejas, 13, and Krista and Isabella Olguin, 10 and 6-years-old, to Fremont Park in the early afternoon on Sunday.
Though most of the snow had melted the four youths had collected enough snow on the hike to the base of the peak for a snowball fight. By the time they were ready to hike down a new storm system had swept in from the Monterey Bay sending flurries of snowflakes up the south side of the ridge to give the mountain a new coat.
Moments of wonder by the crowd gathered at the summit were quickly replaced by the sniffle of running noses as the underdressed and unprepared were exposed to the cold wind propelling the flakes through the air.
Fisher couldn’t help but laugh as the kids complained of getting “snowflakes in their eyes
and that the “snow was cold,” a fact of life they obviously didn’t expect.
As they left the peak they joined the many other kids who in a vain attempt to make their winter experience last, tried to take their very own snowball home with them.
