Portola State Park Hike – The Spirit of KV

If ever there was any doubt about the spirit of KV hikers, this hike demolished it and put any doubts deep under the ground. About 40 people had signed up for this event and 32 showed up and that showed there was plenty of enthu.

The road leading towards the park was foggy and winding. It felt like we have come somewhere else and its not the bay area. Me, Komal and Tarun reached at 9am as planned. But we found no one in the park. Not even the ranger was there. The climate was misty with very very slight drizzle mainly due to precipitation of clouds.

I thought “Oh …may quite a few people may drop out on the way looking at weather.” Soon Shishir/Palvi arrived. Chalo we are not alone at least. Cars were slowed down due to fog and windy road and eventually by 9.45 all 32 members were there.

I thought maybe a few will be discouraged by the weather but I was surprised to find a high level of enthusiasm. We had walking hikers ranging from Sanjana/Jainisha to Manish’s Mom/Dad. Actually Niyom and Pahel also walked for a very brief time. 🙂

We started off the Sequoia Nature Trail but within 0.1 mile we found our first obstacle. We reached a stream with no bridge to cross it. In fact for some reason they remove the bridge and keep it aside. “Great” I thought. Now what !!!

As we were thinking options, and I was wondering what will KV group do now, I was shocked to find a couple of people had already crossed the stream. The whole group was enthu to continue the hike. We threw some logs to the already existing ones to make a rough crossing. A few people stood along the way and we did “passing the parcel”. Transporting the Kids one by one over the stream. The adults balanced themselves on the logs holding hands of the helpers. We were thru to the other side in about 10-12 mins.

The whole atmosphere was cloudy and misty like some hill station. We continued the hike and soon encountered another stream crossing with bridge missing. Now we were used to the routine. There was no going back now. :-). We repeated the same technique and each person crossed over one at a time.

We followed the featured hike as mentioned in bahiker.com. The trail was good and beautiful and 100% shaded. At some place we found couple of fallen trees and we climbed over those. At some places the trail became narrow with the leaves encroaching on the path. Ajay and Amita had brought the stroller and they lifted the stroller around obstacles and did great with the stroller. Jeinay – our inhouse superhero carried Niyom on his back as usual.

I never thought that we would be able to do the full featured hike with kids in the group. But we kept walking and walking and then decided instead of turning back lets just complete the loop and head back via a different route. At about 3 miles we decided to have snacks.

Throughout this while we did not meet a single hiker. We were the only ones there. There were still 2+ miles remaining. Will the kids be able to make it? Will Manish’s Dad/Mom be able to make it?
We started our way back on a different wider road. On the way we saw some lizards, banana slug and mushrooms.

The directions on the trail were a bit confusing and we reached a dead end where there seemed like a bridge which was left unfinished. We thought we are almost lost. This meant we had to cross the stream for the third time. We crossed it and finally after that we were on a tar road.

In a little while we reached our starting point again. WE probably would have covered about 5-6 miles in total. We started at 9.50 am and reached the starting point at 1.50 pm. So a total hike of 4 hours. Everyone did so great on the hike. I was truly surprised at everyone’s great energy. (Even the 40+ club 😉 ).

This was one hike which I wont forget. Full of adventure. Missing bridges, cold stream, fallen trees, wet trails, little drizzle. Nothing could stop this group of 32 from marching and completing a successful hike.
My legs hurt a little bit in evening but the awesome memories of this hike were worth that little pain. A few folks had brought lunch and stayed back to have lunch outside the ranger’s office.

Kudos to everyone !!! The future of KV Hiking is pretty bright.

Full Photo Album is here.

Next Up: Uvas Canyon Hike in Mar/Apr. 😉