Jasper Ridge

Today I had the privilege of hiking a couple miles around Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve. Ever since I saw Searsville Lake on a map in high school I wanted to explore the area. Unfortunately for me it is not open to the general public, which is a good thing for the preserve.

Once, in about 1995, when I worked a construction job nearby, I noticed the gate was open as I was driving home from work. I made a quick decision to pull in and park next to several other cars and proceeded to start hiking on a marked trail. I passed a couple Stanford field trips but just smiled and said hi, acting as if I knew what I was doing. I really didn't have much of a clue as to where I was going but I did want to find the dam and I knew that I was downriver of it in a steep narrow little valley. I rounded a turn in the valley and was awestruck to see the steep faced 100' concrete dam in front of me. It seemed so out of place in comparison to any other shallow dirt and rock dams in the area that I had seen. I would have liked to explore more but didn't want to push my luck.

In talking to my mom after this adventure she told me that she brought me to Searsville Lake as a baby when it was open as a local recreation area. Apparently sand was trucked in from Santa Cruz to make a little beach area and there was a concession stand too. I have no recollection of this at all so I'm guessing I was younger than three.

Fortunately for me my new friend Jaimie, who recently joined us at The North Face, did her undergraduate work at Stanford and is a lifetime docent for Jasper Ridge. Which leads to my privileged hike today. After growing up in this area and exploring every bit of local open space I could get to it was quite exciting to hike several miles over a 100' dam, past natural bat caves, along an untouched creek, through redwood groves, up a ridge, across a meadow and through a small delta. All of which I had never even seen before today!

I love the outdoors and I love exporing new places, so thank you Jamie!