On 18-October-2023 Gary Lohr led a hike along the Alamitos Creek in Almaden valley. This trail is the continuation of the Lake Almaden trail. The hike was about 3.5 miles with both sun and shade and mostly flat.
Category: 2023
Point Reyes Fall Outing
It was perfect underfoot, and the right length of walk – All thoroughly enjoyed it, also as it was mainly flat. The hotel was excellent – they went out of their way to accommodate us, to include the reception on Tuesday. It was in a lovely setting by the marina. A good location to go back there again.
Coyote Creek Trail Hike 4-October-2023
John and Sandy Petrin lead a hike on October 4 to nearby Cottonwood Lake at Hellyer Park. We walked about 4 miles round-trip along the Coyote Creek Trail from the Silver Creek Valley Road Staging Area. San Jose Fire Department was mopping up a small brush fire on the west side of Coyote Creek when we arrived.
Forest of Nisene Marks
On 27-September-2023 Jim Koski led five hikers that spent two hours exploring three miles of redwood trails at The Forest of Nisene Marks in Aptos. We followed the creek upstream, crossed over and looped back to the lower parking lot. Afterwards we enjoyed lunch at the nearby Aptos Street BBQ.
Golf course walk 9-25-2023
On 25-September-2023 a group of eight walkers traversed our golf course.
End of Summer 2023 Potluck Picnic
On 21-Sptember-2023 the Villages Hiking Club had for our annual End of Summer Potluck Picnic, 4.30 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, September 21 at the Gazebo. There were some games including, French bocce, croquet, cornhole, giant Jenga, etc. Music for the evening was provided by well known Villager DJ Ed Knott.
New Brighton State Beach Hike
On 20-Sepember-2023 a small group of members had a nice hike in Seacliff and New Brighton Beach parks. The pier and old cement ship were battered by last winter’s storms and the pier was removed last spring. We pretty much stayed on the paved trail at Seacliff and then on the firmer damp sand to New Brighton. We had our snack at the campground and got an interesting tour of a beautifully restored small trailer from the 1960s. We returned via the abandoned railroad track and streets with cottages above Seacliff. Lunch at the nearby Pixie Deli was amazingly good.
Golf course walk 9-18-2023
On 19-September-2023 a group of members walked the golf course. Another great day.
Golf course walk 9-11-2023
On 11-September-2023 eight members walked the golf course. Awesome weather and good conversations with friends.
General Meeting Minutes 28-Aug-2023
Villages Hiking Club General Meeting
Monday, August 28, 2023, Foothill Center
Order: President Bob Bogdanoff called the meeting to order at 7:32pm with the following Club Board Members in attendance: President, Bob Bogdanoff; VP Social –Carmel Smith; VP Membership & Website – Jim Beyer; VP Hiking & Trails – John Petrin; and, Secretary – Cheryl Allmen. Absent: other commitments: Treasurer – Gordon Carbonetti and Co-VP of Social, Bibi Bruce. 40 individuals were in the audience.
Change of Agenda: Instead of the usual order of business at our general meetings, President Bob announced we would first welcome members and guests, listen to the speaker’s presentation, and then have a nutritional break before the remainder of the business portion. Thereafter, Jim Beyer, VP of Membership & Web, welcomed several guests including Ned Hales and later announced our membership is 329 members. Our recent new members include Carol Baker, Kimi Stiles, and Ayyassin Myrtle. He also indicated that the website is functioning well, although the planned updates are on hold due to our web support, David Cook’s busy schedule.
Presentation: “Living a Sustainable Lifestyle” – Mary Mackey (Global Village Club) shared her research, suggestions and various publications on lessening one’s consumption of animal and fish proteins, packaged foods while increasing one’s nutrition and health support by eating other proteins, organic/non GMO vegetables, fruits, grains etc and avoiding “processed” packaged” foods. She responded to audience’s questions and met with individuals during the break after her well-received presentation.
After the 15 minute Break, the regular business meeting continued with the following reports:
Secretary – Cheryl reminded the members that all board and general meeting minutes are on our club website. Wendy Werner motioned to accept the June 26th meeting minutes which was seconded and passed by the membership.
Treasurer – Substituting for Gordon, Bob shared the following fiscal reports which were motioned and accepted as presented: June and July 2023 Hills Land Project Fund balance: $2,715.89; June General Fund balance: $3,258.96 (Bank balance: $5,304.62). July General Fund balance: $11,226.67 (Bank balance: $11,302.28).
VP Hiking & Trails – John reminded the members of the PixInParks Hike #7 led by Al Girolami, a favorite of his of the Magnificent hikes, at Sanborn Park on Tuesday, August 29, 2023, meeting at 8:45am at the Cribari Bell leaving at 9am. He also indicated that information on the Fall trip to Point Reyes on October 10-12, 2023 will be emailed to the registered 40+attendees soon which will indicate details on the Wednesday Rambler Lite, Rambler, and Long Hikes including a Tuesday 1:30pm warm-up hike. He also covered the directions to the outing, carpooling information, Tuesday reception, the Wednesday dinner restaurant/menu and a list of other attractions, parks and kayaking information.
VP Social –Carmel shared that the End of Summer Pot Luck will be held on Thursday, September 21, 2023 at the Gazebo from 4:30 – 6:00 pm with BYOB.
President – Bob requested another volunteer to join him at the Club/Committee Expo on Saturday, September 9th from 10am-1pm at Cribari Center to explain the variety of our Club hikes and activities.
He mentioned the Sunshine committee had sent a card to Peter Holmes and there had been a Farewell to Dot Armbruster at last Saturday Hill Hike.
He has submitted our 2024 Calendar reservations to the Villages and announced starting in January 2024 our future meetings will start at 7pm and encouraged others to consider running at the next scheduled election for a 2024 Hiking Club Officers Board.
Upcoming General Meeting Speakers will include: September 25th at Vineyard – Theresa Ostrander, Villages GM on the topic of “Hill Lands Management & Walking the Villages “and October 30th at Foothill – Al Henning, Pine Ridge Association on “Henry Coe State Park.
Adjourn –Meeting was adjourned at 8:54pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Cheryl Allmen
Cheryl Allmen, Secretary