Villages Hiking Club, San Jose, CA
Our mission is to promote an active and healthy lifestyle through hiking.
Eleven long hikers, led by Dan Kato, did a 7 mile hike around the Grand Loop at Mt. Diablo State Park on Saturday, November 11th. There was a good deal of climbing up and down as well as some rock scrambling. Lunch on the peaks provided spectacular views of the bay area on this clear day. After the five hour hike, tired and a little sore, but still in good spirits, we then drank a few spirits at Pete’s Brass Rail and Car Wash in Danville.
The Club on Thursday, November 9th gathered for a potluck supper followed by a special performance by Villages residents, Anne and Kevin Worley, “celebrating our lives and passions with songs from the 50’s to the here and now. Eclectic Folk, Country and Rock & Roll.” The gathering was at Foothill Center beginning at 5:30 pm.
Sus
Nancy Rumple led a 8-9 mile hike in Grant Ranch to the overlook and beyond with perfect hiking temperatures. A little drizzle and few other hikers on the trail.
Richard Bainbridge led a hike in the Palo Alto Arastradero nature preserve on Saturday, October 28th . This time the group explored the more challenging trails higher up in the preserve, which were inaccessible last spring. The distance was about 5-7 miles with less than 700 ft elevation difference
Rich Bainbridge and Wendy Ledamun led a trip to the Oakland Zoo on Wednesday, October 15th.
Jane Ruona again, graciously offered her Seascape condo to all short casual strollers, ramblers, and long hikers. Everyone brought a dish or appetizer to share and drinks for our fall potluck and beach walk. The hike was over flat sand along the ocean.
Nine Ramblers completed a four mile hike in Nisene Marks State Park. The very recent seasonal removal of two bridges required modification of the original hiking plan. Nonetheless, the resourceful group cobbled together a memorable hike through beautiful forest settings of lush ferns, redwoods, willows, red alders, and maples. The morning concluded with lunch at the Farm Bakery and Café in Aptos.
A group of members went on a tour of the aircraft carrier the USS Hornet on Wednesday, October 11th which holds 9 battle stars earned for her WW ll service. She supported nearly every Pacific amphibious landing after March 1944 as well as the Apollo artifacts. It is now moored at historic Alameda Point on San Francisco Bay. The three ship’s decks provided an interesting history of life on the carrier. There was a short film introduction and then a docent took the group through the ship describing details and sharing information about it.
 |
| Katy the riveter |
The group enjoyed a fabulous outing last week with great views and challenging trails. The Feather River is the principal tributary of the Sacramento River, in the Sacramento Valley of Northern California. The river’s main stem is about 71 miles (114 km) long. Its length to its most distant head water tributary is about 220 miles (350 km). Its drainage basin is about 6,000 square miles (16,000 km2). The main stem Feather River begins in Lake Oroville, where its four long tributary forks join together—the South Fork, Middle Fork, North Fork, and West Branch Feather Rivers. These and other tributaries drain part of the northern Sierra Nevada, and the extreme southern Cascades, as well as a small portion of the Sacramento Valley. The river’s drainage basin above Lake Oroville is 3,222 square miles (8,340 km), or about 53% of the whole.
The Feather River and its forks were a rich center of gold mining during the 19th century. Since the 1960s, the river has provided water to central and southern California, as the main source of water for the California State Water Project. Its water is also used for hydroelectricity generation.
The Feather is unique in that two of its tributaries, the North Fork and Middle Fork, originate east of the Sierra Nevada in the Diamond Mountains and breach the crest of the Sierras as they flow west.
