St Joseph's Hill and a bear named Piggy

My continuing saga of finding new and exciting places to ride this week took me to St. Josephs Hill.


There are two starting points for St. Joseph's Hill, one in Los Gatos, the other at the Lexington Resevoir Dam. I parked at the dam, and discovered later in the ride that was probably the best place to park. There wasn't quite so much climbing into the park on the dam side. I had planned to ride alone, and didn't expect any company but...


...when I pulled into the Lexington Dam Reservoir, I found this little fellow hanging out in the parking lot. He was willing to go for a ride, so I tucked him into my camelback and we headed off.


Time to climb.


I took a map and picked a trail. Most of the trails were dusty fireroad out in the open, under the hot sun. I started on Manzanita Trail, then followed the signs to the Hilltop Vista. I don't think I ever got to a vista though.


The views were nice, but that was about all this trail had going for it.


Lots and lots of climbing; and only one little fun singletrack loop called Serpentine Trail that lasted all of .2 miles.


After riding forever on boring fireroad up the side of a hill, this meadow up top suprised me.


Little white and yellow daisies are one of my favorite flowers.


Where to next? Flume Trail!? No way! I had to check out Californias version of the famous flume trail, even if it meant walking part of it. Then I saw the arrow towards Novitiate Park. A park sounded good. Maybe there would be trees, or a lake. I had packed a sandwich with the thought of finding a place to picnic, so the way was clear. We were off to the park.


The path leading to the park was downhill, and as I picked up more speed, and went further along I started to worry. Going downhill for a mile is fun. Turning around and climbing back up that same mile was not going to be as much fun. I hoped that Novitiate Park was going to be worth it, but I had a sneaking suspicion it wouldn't be anything more than a park bench.


I was right.


At the end of the trail we found a sign, and a park bench. To be fair there was a path leading on around the park, but I didn't ride it. So there could have been more to Novitiate Park then I saw.

So I ate my sandwich, and read from my park map that the Jesuits lived on top of St. Josephs Hill studying, praying, harvesting grapes and making (drinking!) wine. And the Jones trail leading through the park was used by stagecoaches in the 1800's, California Mission Founders in 1791, and even the Ohlone indians as much as a thousand years ago. That's kind of cool, if you think about it. Here's a piece of land that Indians traveled over ages and ages ago to cross into the Valley. It was the only path available to bring supplies to Los Gatos from the towns of Lexington, and Alma. People have been crossing this hill for a long time. I wonder what they would think about us now; running around on it with bikes and dogs, and running shoes-putting up park benches and trail signs. Crazy.

The climb back up the path was not too bad, and the rest was all downhill to the car. I rode into the parking lot, and was about to unload the camelback when I heard a little girl behind me say 'piggy!' A family had pulled into the parking lot and the girl was pointing at my bear. I asked the Dad if it was hers, but he said no. She said piggy again and I shook my head and said "No, it's a bear.' The dad laughed and said "She's trying to say 'piggyback'."

St. Josephs Hill makes riding at Fremont Older seem like Whistler. How's that for a mountain biking analogy? I was glad I went, but I don't think I'll go any time again soon.



I took Piggy riding at Alum Rock later that day.