Back to hiking

Family of deer seen during our hike

A couple of weeks back, we had been to a concert in Los Altos Hills. We passed by a trail head and it brought back an old familiar feeling of hiking to us. The air was fresh with the smell of the trees, and we remembered the exhilarating feeling that comes with hiking and being one with nature in the California hiking trails. We decided to try and hike again, this time as a family.

We set out to the Almaden Quicksilver County Park and decided to do a “trial run” the following weekend. This consisted of planning a small one-hour long hike and practicing our method of packing and hiking with the little ones. The park is located in New Almaden which is south of San Jose (the original town named Almaden is in Spain). It has an old post office that was opened in 1841. The community is named after the New Almaden mine which was opened in 1848. This mine is the oldest and was most productive quicksilver or mercury mine in the US.

The website of the county park summarizes the park with the following note: “Welcome to Almaden Quicksilver County Park, spectacular in natural diversity and a landmark of California history. The park is the site of over 135 years of mining activities and former home to more than 1,800 miners and their families. The park encompasses 4,163 acres, occupying a majority of Capitancillos Ridge. During early spring, the park offers one of the most spectacular wildflower displays in the region. Remnants of the mining era also offer an exciting look into the mining operations of the latter part of the 19th century.”

We started off our hike with the baby in a hiking backpack carrier worn by my husband. I carried our backpack which was packed with whatever we thought we would need for our short hike. Our daughter walked alongside us. The initial part of the hike, like all trails local to us, was uphill. We managed to do it and decided to do a 2 mile roundtrip hike as part of our practice run. We wanted to see how our daughter would do with the distance, and whether our son would stay content in the carrier. We reached the top with not much difficulty and had a bit of trouble keeping our daughter entertained on the way down (she kept wanting to stop and collect pebbles). We were treated to a sight of a family of deer on the way back at the old mining site. We didn’t hike far enough to enjoy good views, but enjoyed our time out in nature very much. Aside from an incident of our daughter’s water bottle leaking in our car and a bit of fussiness from the baby, there were no issues whatsoever.

This was also a good chance of me to do some reflecting and processing. I lost a friend about three months ago, and the feelings about her passing have been coming in waves. She was an old friend with whom I have been hiking many times and camping a couple of times. I recently wrote about my memories of her and recalled some of our moments spent hiking together. I realize that I will have to process this loss from time to time while also continuing to live my life to its potential as much as possible. The hike gave me another opportunity to think about her. It also gave me a chance to process some thoughts I have been having about my work and career and where I would like to see it go.

I would like to update this post at some time or write a new one about the history of Almaden, after I visit the old mining museum and learn more about it. Until then, here’s some Depeche Mode for you.

Now I'm not looking for absolution

Forgiveness for the things I do

But before you come to any conclusions

Try walking in my shoes

Try walking in my shoes

You'll stumble in my footsteps

Keep the same appointments I kept

If you try walking in my shoes

If you try walking in my shoes

PS: Speaking of shoes, my husband and I also fished out our nice hiking boots which have been occupying the top shelf of our shoe closet for far too long, and wore them on this hike.