6-10-13 Anthony Chabot

After a very hot Saturday, it cooled down Sunday, and by today, Monday it was quite cool and cloudy. On the morning news, they even said there may be thundershowers today. I didn't sound too promising for a hike, but I wanted to get out a bit anyway. As it turned out, the weather got nicer in the afternoon. So I finally got myself moving about 11:30, and Darby and I drove to Anthony Chabot and parked at Bort Meadow.

I had a couple of ideas. One was to hike the Macdonald Trail north, which is part of the Skyline Trail and Bay Area Ridge Trail. The other was to check out The Grass Valley Trail and Ranch Trail, which I hadn't been on. As we started out, I was still undecided, but after a few feet up the Macdonald Trail, I changed my mind and we went down the Grass Valley Trail instead. I started a GPS track on my phone because I suspected that the trail alignment shown on the park map was not correct. After walking about a mile up the valley, I stopped to take a photo with the phone. Apparently doing that stopped the GPS track, but I didn't find that out until later. Still, I can see that the map is not accurate because it shows the trail going high on the east side of the valley, while in reality it stays close to the creek until it crosses it. Then it switchbacks steeply up the west side hill.

We turned left on the Goldenrod Trail, a fire road that winds along up and down just below the crest of the ridge. Although it is quite near the houses along Skyline Blvd, they are mostly out of sight, and it feels more remote than it is. After a while we came to a junction with the Buckeye Trail, which could have taken us back to Bort Meadow, but I wasn't ready to head back yet. After quite a bit more winding in and out and up and down, we came to the Chabot Equestrian Center. As a horse owner, I was a bit curious about these facilities, and it looked like a pretty nice setup. We continued on along the trail, expecting to see another trail heading down toward Bort Meadow. We had probably gone about another half mile when I began to get the feeling that we had missed that trail. I stopped and looked at my position on Google maps on my phone, and although it doesn't show the trails, I was pretty sure that we had missed it. We backtracked to the equestrian center, and I asked directions of a woman leading her horse. She pointed out the trail which leaves right from the driveway of the center without any signs identifying it. So we headed down the Horseshoe Trail, and soon we were back in the valley and back to our car.

Since the GPS quit on my phone, I don't have any measurement of distance or elevation, but I would guess it was about 5 miles, 600-800 ft. of climbing.