1) 10 people went on this hike.
* Everyone was on-time (7:30 am) or early, awesome, and thanks!!
* Everyone dressed warmly as suggested.
* Temperature was ~30 F (near parking) to 50 F (Portola headquarters).
* All went to China China buffet after the hike.
2) Total distance: 18.5 miles. (Margin of error +/- 1 mi)
3) Total elevation gain: 3,250'
4) Started hiking at 8:15 am, finished at 5:05 pm.
* Rest/lunch/map time: ~1.5 hrs.
* Hike/moving time: ~7.3 hr.
* Avg pace: ~2.52 mph.
5) This was an extremely memorable hike, at least for me.
It was so touching to see everyone completely on-time at the
carpool location. You made my life so much easier by being
on-time, a big thanks to all the hikers!
We did not end up taking the exact route that I had originally
planned for. Reason: we missed a poorly-marked turn about
4.5 miles into the hike and ended up in an old logging property.
It turns out that the logging roads were not on the maps we
had, nor the GPS at all! We decided to keep going while keeping
the option to retrace our steps open.
The on-trail hike became an off-map hike, and we ended up
seeing more than we would've otherwise. Since we couldn't
find the logging roads on our maps, we put our heads and equipment
together to make educated guesses as to where we were. We
examined the elevations, the creeks, distances and times from
certain locations, etc. This became a real mystery hike!
We knew we were close to Portola Redwoods State Park headquarters,
and by observing the alignment and flow of creeks, the elevation,
and a general sense of distance from where we started, we
were able to find our way to major logging roads and then
Pescadero Creek County Park, and then Portola State Park.
From there, we took the normal trails back to parking. It
was an interesting experience to hike on trails that aren't
labeled or even on the map. I think everyone learned a bit
more about hiking, understanding maps more, and using common
sense to deal with 'challenges'. And of course to pay more
attention to gates, especially ones that aren't labeled!
