I’m still digging out from the hole I managed to dig for myself by going on vacation for two weeks, but I was able to squeeze in an afternoon of hiking two weekends ago to celebrate the opening of over five new miles of the Bay Area Ridge Trail. This new segment starts at its intersection near the high point of the Boccarado Trail out of Alum Rock County Park and curves around Alum Rock before ending at its extension to a nice vista point east of Mt Hamilton Road. The track embedded below shows the new segment from where we began at a temporary trailhead/staging area along Sierra Road. Unfortunately this was only opened for this particular day and for the foreseeable future it has to be accessed from Alum Rock Park. This adds quite a lot of miles and elevation gain/descent, so be prepared!
We showed up in the early afternoon just in time to hear some interesting speakers, listen to some politician platitudes, and cut the ribbon for the new trail. Naturally, everyone wanted to get out on the new trail and it was crowded, but most people turned back after the first mile since cars had to be out of the temporary parking area by a certain time. Luckily we had staged a car below at Alum Rock so we were free to hike all afternoon.
If You Visit:
Sierra Vista Open Space and the new section of the BART are only accessible via Alum Rock Park. Access is via the Bocarrado Trail. Alum Rock Map here and Sierra Vista map here. As of this writing it is $6 to park at Alum Rock.
We were there, hiked as far as the Furtado Ranch and back so we could get out of the parking lot on time. My husband’s Grandparents bought the ranch in the 40’s and he spent a lot of time up there growing up. It was a great hike with lots of memories. We look forward to going again, but dread the hike UP from Alum Rock!