“The best journeys take unexpected detours.”
—Lisa Mangum
An unplanned detour has taken friend, Bill Rothenberg and I to some of the most beautiful places and some seemingly crazy ones as well.
Take this morning's hour ride. We had intended to do a modest ride along the Los Gatos Creek Trails, through Vasona Lake County Park to Los Gatos Boulevard, continuing on with a steep climb up Kennedy Road to Shannon Road, to the Guadalupe Reservoir on Hick’s Road. The payoff is a few adrenaline rush descents. But, we found ourselves pushing the envelope. During our interlude at the Guadalupe reservoir, Bill noticed some hikers across the way in the distance and wondered out loud, could we cross the steep cement dam spillway to access some other biking trails. After several attempts, we discovered it was too slippery and downright risky to climb to the top of the spillway and ride across. We speculated if we might have better luck walking our bikes across the lower part of the 60-degree downward grade. We would have to lift our bikes over the black corrugated PVC drain pipe and walk it down to the gravel trail across to the other side while gripping our brakes to gain better traction. Broken glass and “Devil’s thorn,” otherwise known as "goathead vines" sharp enough to puncture bike tires were difficult to avoid. I kept thinking of a quote I read recently: “The leading cause for injury in old men is them thinking they are still young men.”
We finally made it to the other side, only to realize we now had to navigate uphill before we could get to the hiking trail. Perseverance and ingenuity paid off. With belabored breath, we made it across without getting hurt. We saw a sign for Almaden Quicksilver County Park, but we didn’t know where the trail led.
Suddenly, a hiker appeared. He looked familiar. "Joey?" I asked. "Yeah!" He said, squinting as the sun shone on his eyes. "It’s me, Dennis from Courtside Bay Club." Joey was a spin teacher before Covid-19 hit. We asked him for assistance and he pointed us in the right direction. He told us he lived only a mile away. As people would say of such encounters, “What are the chances?” But, I happen to believe in Serendipity.
Almaden Quicksilver County Park in South San Jose encompasses 4,163 acres. Formerly the home of 1,800 mining families dating back to the 1800s. It includes over 35 miles of hiking trails, including 30 miles of equestrian trails and 16.6 miles of bike trails. Quicksilver, the silver-colored metal mercury is often used metaphorically to describe something that moves or changes very quickly The word comes from the sense of quickness that means “alive,” which is how Bill and I felt after another magnificent biking adventure. Or, as Bill referred to it: “Another epic ride." By the time we made it back home, we had traveled 28 miles round trip, blue skies all the way.
