Saturday April 20th was an awesome day to hike Black Mountain in the Los Altos Hills at Rancho San Antonio open space.This was the 6th peak of my Bay Are Peak challenge! I think Black Mountain needs to have a name change because it was green and lush with vegetation. It did not live up to its name. The weather was perfect for this 15-mile hike with blue skies, sunshine, a light breeze and snakes!
We started off promptly at 815am and Abbros trail up and connected with the Quarry trail up to the Black Mountain trail.
The group was in high spirits and the pace was brisk. Stories were being told, conversations happening, and many pictures were taken. I informed the group that they could make this a 12 hike hike but for an additional 2.5 miles there was a good opportunity to see new baby goats at Deer Hallow Farm. My mom had recently visited the farm and informed me about the new baby goats. The pace picked up; people wanted to see the babies!
We hit the summit at about 10:35am! Congratulations were exchanged and lunch was eaten. From the start to the summit we covered just over 6 miles, gained over 2800 in elevation, in about 2:20! Record time!
We then descended back down the Black Mountain trail all the way to the Mary Davey Memorial where we took a break. But before we made it to the memorial the group stopped suddenly on the trail. I was about 4 hikers back and was alerted that there was a big snake just sunning himself on the trail It was not rattling but we were cautious. After negotiating with the snake to pass he was not interested in moving. So, I tossed a few rocks at him. He curled up and slithered back into the grass. I borrowed a fellow hikers hiking pole and walked up to where he was and poked around to make sure he was gone. He was and on we went.
We took our break at the memorial and connected with the Camise trail down to the Rogue Valley trail which led us into Deer Hollow Farm.
As promised, there were baby goats. They were resting in the shade along with all the other goats. We took a few pictures and pressed on with the final leg of our hike.
But the group encountered another snake! This time it was a HUGE rattlesnake. It must have been 5ft in length and was thick. He looked well fed but paid us no attention and slithered off into the grass rather quickly.
It was a fantastic day to be out at Rancho San Antonio in the Los Altos Hills with an incredible group. Thanks to all who came and supported me in bagging my 6th peak. 3 more peaks to go in the challenge! In total we covered about 15.13 miles, gained 3278 in elevation in about 5:30. I have posted all the pictures and videos of the hike to this page. Also, there is a link to the All-Trails route we took. If you would like to ask more questions about my hikes, please feel free to message me and I will share all my info. If you are interested in my hikes, you can follow me on my Facebook page Jason’s Hiking Adventures, Bay Are Hikers, Instagram @jasonshikingadventures, Social Hiker, and All Trails. Thanks for reading!
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