Alum Rock Park
At the end of a long, cold, wet, sickly winter.
We've been able to eek out a couple rides over the past few months, but as the arctic storms and cold and
mud and snowboarding and overall bad weather persisted, the dark winter days just started to wear thin, and thinner, as
sitting bundled on the couch, watching TV, and computer games no longer seemed like such a bad idea.
But with a sudden burst of spring this weekend we were looking for a place to shake out
stiff and creaky gears, cables, and joints. We had heard about Alum Rock Park for awhile--
it always seemed not quite enough before-- but right now, it suited us just fine.
From the website
it turns out that Alum Rock Park, near Grant Ranch, along the eastern fringe of San Jose,
is the oldest municipal park in California.
It has gone through several stages of development, and now reclaiming the wilderness seems to be more the idea...
kind of, it was still pretty developed down on the valley floor... but it's the right thought.
The small park follows a deep ravine at the base of Mission Peak, slicing deep into
the northern tip of the Coastal range.
Only along Penitencia Creek and the North Rim Trail are bikes legal, forming a natural loop heading
out along the stream and then heading back overlooking it all,
along steep hillsides above.
Photos
Click to expand
From the entrance, a little bit of singletrack will take you to park headquarters.
This is around the ranger station in the central area of the park.
In the second shot is Alum Rock, named after the element of aluminum, which it is rumored to contain.
Though bauxite is the usual ore aluminum comes from, anyway, here is the namesake of the park.
Alum is a sulfate in which a trivalent metal (aluminum, chromium, or iron) combines with a univalent
metal like potassium or sodium, so it doesn't necessarily contain any aluminum, but that's what I recall reading
about it.
Here is at the end, of the bike-legal portion anyway, of the trail that follows the stream.
Bikes have to turn around here, where the South Rim Trail begins.
Back to where the main paved road ends, it's a rather abrupt 200 foot climb along the North Rim trail before
it starts to flatten out.
Thereafter it stays pretty flat as you ride back to the start admiring the views.
Five points if you can find Kenny.
About halfway along the North Rim Trail you'll see the entrace to the Todd Quick Trail, a singletrack loop rising
up another 200 feet up the slopes. We took it in a clockwise direction, so
here we are heading back down around the Weather Trail.
Back on the North Rim Trail, which as you can see it mostly fire road until it gets to the end.
Although Alum Rock is a short ride, you can see that chalk full of pleasant scenery.
Now we should have taken this fallen oak tree as a hint to take one of the prior connecting trails back down to the
main road. From the online map this would be the Lariet trail. The tight swichbacks in the second shot were
just the beginning of the fun to come. Unlike the rest of the park, this is a pretty technical section.
Ten points if you can spot the deer (look for the ears).
What a relief to finally have hardpack again under spinning tires on green hillsides,
as the nascent smell of the spring breeze passes by casually in little puffs.
This has to be the longest time I've gone without riding since I first
got a mountain bike, and how invigorating today was to be on the trail again.
We discovered the Boccardo trail at the
top of the Todd Quick Loop, that ascends another 1000 feet, unevenly, over what would already be a stiff 1.5 mile climb.
We didn't know about it until we got there, and might have done it had we arrived sooner, but is definately worth
knowing about because it would have turned Alum Rock from a pretty date-ride into a solid bit of climbing.
So we'll be back later, no doubt.
(b. March 7, 2005)
Back to Henry Coe & Vicinity.
Back home.
This is around the ranger station in the central area of the park.
In the second shot is Alum Rock, named after the element of aluminum, which it is rumored to contain.
Though bauxite is the usual ore aluminum comes from, anyway, here is the namesake of the park.
Alum is a sulfate in which a trivalent metal (aluminum, chromium, or iron) combines with a univalent
metal like potassium or sodium, so it doesn't necessarily contain any aluminum, but that's what I recall reading
about it.
Here is at the end, of the bike-legal portion anyway, of the trail that follows the stream.
Bikes have to turn around here, where the South Rim Trail begins.
Back to where the main paved road ends, it's a rather abrupt 200 foot climb along the North Rim trail before
it starts to flatten out.
Thereafter it stays pretty flat as you ride back to the start admiring the views.
Five points if you can find Kenny.
About halfway along the North Rim Trail you'll see the entrace to the Todd Quick Trail, a singletrack loop rising
up another 200 feet up the slopes. We took it in a clockwise direction, so
here we are heading back down around the Weather Trail.
Back on the North Rim Trail, which as you can see it mostly fire road until it gets to the end.
Although Alum Rock is a short ride, you can see that chalk full of pleasant scenery.
Now we should have taken this fallen oak tree as a hint to take one of the prior connecting trails back down to the
main road. From the online map this would be the Lariet trail. The tight swichbacks in the second shot were
just the beginning of the fun to come. Unlike the rest of the park, this is a pretty technical section.
Ten points if you can spot the deer (look for the ears).