|
The first hike of the new year, and oh, what an alpine experience it was! Well, okay, not really. Hood Mountain lies between Sonoma and Santa Rosa. It rises to a lofty 2,730 ft, but it’s close to home and it meets most of the requirements of a 2,000 ft prominence peak. Why not?
Chari and I left Oakland at the luxuriously late hour of 8 am and were ready to hike just before 10. We started at the Goodspeed trailhead located on the south side of the mountain. As this modest parking lot you are still outside of the park, so there is no need to pay an entrance fee if you hike from here.
The trail immediately crosses two streams on stout wood bridges and then slowly gains elevation through near-level switchbacks full of ankle-clattering rocks and some mud for fun. After about 300 ft of gain the trail crosses a dirt road and descends to cross another stream. The trail at the stream had washed out, making our crossing a little interesting in the steep drainage. The wet rocks also added to our fun with stability experiments, but we made it to other side without a dunking. We watched a backpacker cross the water while wading to mid-calf level; don’t know why but he did.
We gained elevation a little more quickly after the stream, climbing out of the forest and on to grass-covered hillsides. Approximately half-way to the top we entered the park at a posted sign and map, and the trail becomes the Natkempper-Goodspeed trail, along with a bench and a poem about Mr. Natkempper, who died in 2001. Sounds like a neat guy. We continued up more switchbacks until reaching a modest saddle that provided views of the the valley to the west. Back in the trees, we saw three deer at close range. They looked a little startled at our presence and seems unnerved when we stopped. Not that I blame them. We hiked past the spur for Gunsight Rock and made for the summit, a small bald area without appreciable views or even a dry place to sit! I surmounted the 3rd class summit block after we had lunch, and then we went to check out Gunsight. Gunsight Rock is definitely the place to visit if you hike Hood as you get a commanding view of the valley below, clear over to Sonoma Mountain and down to the San Francisco Bay. From Gunsight, it took us less than 2 hours to return to the car. Hood seems to be a late day hike, as we passed numerous hikers on our way down, and we only saw one on our ascent.
We were back at home by 5:30, a pleasant outdoor day on a lazy schedule.
--msw
|
