3-11-12 Willow Park loop

On another warm, clear Sunday, I took Darby on one of my old favorite hikes. It's an old favorite mostly because it is a short drive and can be easily done in less than two hours. But it is a pretty trail near the upper end of Lake Chabot, and there are some nice views.

I usually do this hike in a clockwise direction, but for some reason decided to go the other way today. It was probably because the other direction involves a long, steep climb. We started off from the parking lot for the Willow Park Golf Course. I'm not sure if hikers are supposed to park there, but no one has ever told me not to. We started up a dusty fire road, the Brandon Trail, along a ridge, a steady climb but not terribly steep. As we get higher, there are nice views of the golf course and the lake, and lots of green hills to the east and south. After a mile and a half or so, we turn left on the Towhee Trail down along a grassy hillside, then left again on the Live Oak trail. This is where it gets steep, but luckily we are going downhill for about a mile. At the flats at the head of Lake Chabot, we cross a long narrow footbridge and turn left on the Cameron Loop Trail.

It is quite warm, and by this time I am getting pretty tired. The shortest way back would be to go through the golf course, but it is clearly off-limits to hikers, and we would probably get into some kind of trouble. We crossed the narrow footbridge across the creek, turned right, then left on the Cameron Loop Trail, and climbed up a little canyon on the south side of the lake. I didn't like the climbing, but it is much shorter than the climb that we had already done. We turned left on the Ten Hills Trail, then left again on the Proctor Trail, a narrower trail that contours down the hill above the golf course. After an hour and a half, we were back at the car.

4.7 mi. -- 1200 ft. up and down