The Bay Area Ridge Trail at Coyote Lake-Harvey Bear Ranch County Park rises gently above the 90-year-old Coyote Dam and Reservoir and meanders through a pasture on the ridgeline east of Gilroy. Recent rains left the hills a brilliant green and portions of the trail a cattle-churned quagmire.
We are hiking the 405-mile Bay Area Ridge Trail. Sign up to follow our progress here.
TRAIL MAP (date hiked)
- Coyote Lake-Harvey Bear County Park (Jan. 21, 2023)
Our Journal
After nearly two weeks of generational storms in the Bay Area, we chose Coyote Lake for our first Ridge Trail hike of the new year. The ranger cautioned that the series of atmospheric rivers had left the northern-most trails a bit muddy. But we didn’t anticipate the boot-sucking quagmire that we encountered.
Much of the trail here is through open pastureland. The recent rain accompanied by cattle traffic really tore up portions of trail. The primary obstacle proved to be muddy hoof prints both on the trail and adjacent pasture, many of them 6 to 8 inches deep.
We managed to avoid twisting an ankle or losing a shoe, but passage through about a quarter of the trail was exhausting. And it’s hard to enjoy green hills on a sunny winter’s day in Northern California when you need to keep your eyes focused strictly on the mud ahead of you.
The trail overlooks the farms, ranches and vineyards in and around Gilroy, the “Garlic Capital of the World.” We caught only glimpses of the lake from the trail.
We drove two cars to shuttle between trailheads. As Dan was leaving the dam parking lot for the drive home, he spotted the first feral pig of our Ridge Trail trek. It was huge. His first thought? “Golly that’s a funny-looking cow.”
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