INCH Hike: Mine Hill Loop

208. Mine Hill Loop (04/28/01)

Hikers (6): Atul, Peter, Roberto, Russ, Steve, Wendell
Distance: 9 miles
Rating: 2 difficulty, 8 beauty
Park info: Almaden Quicksilver County Park in south San Jose

Write-up by Russ

Hard to believe the Mine Hill Loop was a hike that hasn't been done July 1999! And this was Atul's last INCH hike, at least before he moved up to Oregon. Atul met Steve and I at the Intel garage and we piled into my car. After a couple of wrong turns on the way to the trailhead, we finally arrived. Roberto had arrived before we did. Since Wendell said he was coming, we decided to wait for him. While we were waiting, The Man showed up unannouced. The presence of The Man charged everyone up. Finally Wendell showed up in his new Lexus SUV. Time for the INCH cheer and off we went.

1, 2, 3, ... INCH!

It was a beautiful day for a hike. It was a bit overcast, but that is nice hiking weather. Since I was lazy, I didn't map out the hike route ahead of time. So this became a throwback hike where once we came to an intersection someone had to pick which direction we would go. At the second intersection, The Man made the choice that would have led us right back to the parking lot. That would have been a short hike. We overrode The Man and continued on our way. For whatever reason this was a stag hike (fortunately this doesn't happen too often), so we took advantage of the opportunity to make some sexist comments. We got tired of that pretty quickly. The first half of the hike covered the greener southern part of the park.

We then crossed back to the other half of the park where the mines are. This part of the park contains what Steve calls the Alien Autopsy Lab (see Hike #101) and other mining artifact areas. At the rest area, we had a bit of miscommunication. Peter had to hit the road and have dinner with his mother (his mom!). So Wendell and I followed him. The rest of the gang thought we were coming back, so they waited and waited ... and waited. Finally they gave up and followed us back to the car.

Miscommunication is part of an INCH hike and this was no different!