Follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.”—Joseph Campbell
My friend Bill and I went on two notable bike rides this past week. The first one was a 25-mile outing to Guadalupe Reservoir a part of the Almaden Quicksilver County Park, which at its highest point is over 1,700 feet above sea level with sweeping views of San Jose. The park got its name from their New Almaden Quicksilver Mines, named after the mercury mine in (old) Almaden, Spain. It produced the mercury that was used to process ore during California Gold Rush. The Guadalupe Reservoir is located high up along Hicks Road on Guadalupe Creek, a tributary of the Guadalupe River. It is so quiet, that if you see more than one car pass you by every half hour, that is a lot. Upon our return we stopped at Bill’s wood carver contact and supplier for some of his woodworking projects.
The second 17-mile ride, closer in, that we did today was to the iconic Villa Montalvo, the privately owned blooming Peach Tree Road gardens in Saratoga, and parts of Los Gatos, all located in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Villa Montalvo is composed of a magnificent Mediterranean mansion with surrounding gardens, a cultural arts center and walking trails is one of the last great estates gracing the Santa Clara County countryside. The estate once belonged to James Duval Phelan, son of an ambitious Irish immigrant that made his fortune during the Gold Rush. Phelan became mayor of San Francisco and a United States Senator. Upon his death, the former senator with philanthropic bona fides donated Villa Montalvo to the San Francisco Art Association along with income to maintain the property as a public park. Currently, Villa Montalvo serves as a center for the arts. Today, resident artists live and work on the magnificent estate.
Postscript: Back in the day, I was part of a watercolor group called Saratoga Community of Painters for several years that included a retired CEO of Lockheed. Montalvo was not only one of our prized spots to paint, but our group also had an exhibit there and I was humbled by the fact that the director of our show at the time bought one of my paintings of the main mansion.
