Hiking The Skyline

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Hiking the Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail -- the Bay Area's best long- distance trail -- is a rite of passage for many. A few drenching coastal rains mixed with warm blue-sky days, and everything comes to life in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The trek becomes a baptism of spring. It's my favorite trip in the region. Over the years, I've hiked this trail at least 40 times, over and over, in rain, sun, fog, mist, hail and, once, snow. It always works for me. It is a personal mission to find new places every week across the state, yet there are a handful of favorites to which I keep returning. In the Bay Area, this is the trip that crowns them all. The trail runs 34.5 miles, starting at Castle Rock State Park on Skyline Ridge. From there it heads west through a diverse and eye-popping landscape -- and downhill nearly the entire way -- to the ocean at Waddell Beach and Rancho del Oso on the western outskirts of Big Basin State Park. Along the way, you get views of Monterey Bay and coastal forest, dense hardwoods near the headwaters of the San Lorenzo River, exotic sandstone formations, extensive fern grottoes on the floor of redwood forests, many old- growth redwood mammoths, four waterfalls and, near the coast, a riparian zone along Waddell Creek with wildflowers galore. From one mile to the next, the hits just keep on coming. This trip works best as a two-night, three-day backpacking trek. With your hiking partners, arrange for a shuttle system by leaving vehicles at both ends of the trail (one at the parking lot at Castle Rock, another at Rancho del Oso). You can then figure trail days of 11.4 miles, 9.8 miles and 13.3 miles -- with a 2.7-mile side trip on the last day to explore the Bay Area's three prettiest waterfalls: Berry Creek Falls, Silver Falls and Golden Falls. That makes for a 37.2-mile expedition, door-to-door. Reservations for the trail camps are
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