Grant Ranch killer hike

10 February 2013

I haven’t been to Grant Ranch yet this year, and with more daylight, I can commit to circumambulate the outermost ring of trails (21 miles, 4400 vertical feet), even if I get a late start. It was almost 8:20 when I started out on Washburn trail, past the old barn. Although it was quite chilly, I went out in shirtsleeves, knowing that after the first half mile, I would turn uphill and generate enough body heat to be comfortable. And so it was.

Toward the end of the day, I sometimes photograph the early part of the hike from the far side. Today, I photograph the end point from the midmorning ridgetop.

Hours from now, I will come back from the left, along those grassy hills, and drop down on the train that’s visible at the far right of the picture.

Here’s what it looks like, zoomed out. The old barn in the previous picture is about 1 pixel, 80% toward the right side.

Well, and a nice day it was, indeed. It was three hours before I met anyone, and I only met six people all day, excluding the wheeled traffic I saw at the road crossings. One hiker insisted on showing me the photos he had just taken of a bobcat. Cool! I saw three coyotes myself, but coyote sightings are nowhere near as rare as cat sightings.

Spring is definitely on the way.

And here we are, about 4:30, looking down on the old barn from the south and west. Nice day, long day. As they say, it’s a good hike if you can walk away from it. And I can — just barely — still walk.

I started back down the road, turned on the car radio, to learn from the traffic reports that a hotshot Corvette driver had gone off the road further down and they had the road closed for emergency vehicles. (Well, they didn’t say hotshot, but you can imagine the details for yourself.) So I turned around and went home via Quimby road, which is a substantially longer route, but it beats sitting there waiting for the main road to be opened again.

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Tags: Grant ranch