INCH Hike: Serpentine Trail

256. Serpentine Trail (03/23/02)

Hikers (5): Cal, Eugene, Oliver, Peter, Steve
Distance: 5 miles
Rating: 2 difficulty, 8 beauty
Park info: Edgewood Park and Natural Preserve near Redwood City

Write-up by Peter

After many moons, we finally came across a new place to hike! Our co-worker, Bob Zombie, recommended we check out Edgewood Park on the western side of Redwood City. By looking at the map, we could see that it was a small place, so the plan was to hike all the trails.

The weather forecast had called for on-and-off showers all day, so we had a light turnout. Only the truly intrepid were willing to forge ahead through the wilds of Edgewood Park in the rain!

1, 2, 3 ... INCH!

We started out from the Old Stage Trailhead and headed up the Sylvian Trail switchbacks. This was a nice little climb, but it was pretty much over before we knew it. Actually, this turned out to be the toughest part of the whole hike! We should have known from the number of joggers on the trail and the local elderly folk out for a stroll that was not exactly going to be a butt-kicker.

At the top, we decided to go into the original INCH mode of picking the trail -- at each fork a different person would choose which direction we would go to next. Figuring this was a small place, there was no danger of getting lost. Actually, I was hoping something like that would happen (just to get a little more challenge on the hike), but it was not to be.

We took the Serpentine Trail over to the Ridgeview Loop, up to Inspiration Point (where we ran into a nice spring shower), then back down and around to the Sunset Trailhead on the southern edge of the park, then back along the Serpentine to the Edgewood Trail and back down the switchbacks. The whole thing was over in an hour and a half.

Back at the car, we debated doing another nearby hike, but could not find anything worthwhile (and I wanted to get home to watch March Madness), so we just called it a day.