Logistics Complicate Ridge Trail Hike at Mount Umunhum

The Bay Area Ridge Trail at Mount Umunhum climbs steadily and occasionally steeply through a mixed forest of madrone, bay laurel and oak. The 3,486-foot peak, pushed skyward by a left bend in the San Andreas fault, is the fourth highest in the Santa Cruz Mountains. In addition to the requisite views and a large parking lot, the summit contains “The Cube,” the shell of a Cold War era radar installation that was decommissioned in 1980.

We are hiking the 410-mile Bay Area Ridge Trail. Sign up to follow our progress here.

TRAIL MAP: Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve: Mount Umunhum (Nov. 6, 2023)

Our Journal

The logistics of completing a Ridge Trail hike efficiently have become tiresome: One car, two cars or Uber? Point to point or out and back? A pub at the end of the trail before or after we clean up?

Unfortunately, the logistics for tackling the Ridge Trail route up Mount Umunhum from the Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve require some thought.

• There are three trailheads with parking.
• You can hike up the mountain or down the mountain or a bit of both.
• With a car shuttle, your journey can be as short as 3.8 miles. Or you can choose the 16-mile out-and-back trek and save some gas money. Or something in between.

So many choices.

We brought two cars and chose to begin at the lower trailhead and hike up to the middle trailhead. After shuffling cars, we then hiked down from the summit back to the middle trailhead. Confused? click here and check out the map.

What was our rationale? Dawn likes to hike up hill. Dan likes to hike down hill. Hiking uphill half way and downhill half way seemed like a good compromise.

So why not cut the distance in half and just complete the segment between the middle lot and the summit? We are Ridge Trail circumnavigators. The lower half of the route we chose includes a two-mile connector between the Lexington Reservoir and Mount Umunhum hikes at Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve. This was the most efficient route to complete the connector.

And what about that pub? We chose to clean up first.

Click HERE
to support
the Ridge Trail