All In A Day's Work

Easy Day Hike - Wilder State Park in California. The Old Cove Landing Trail can be combined with the Ohlone Bluff Trail for a 3.75 mile hike one way. Continue to Four Mile Beach for a 10.5 mile round trip hike or ride.

Why don't you join horse patrol with us? It's a great way to give back to the community.   I look at my friend who's saying this to me and am mentally shaking my head.  If she only knew how much I give to the community everyday I work at 911.   But, the idea rolls round and round in my head until finally it takes root a couple of years later and I decide to go for it and ride the trails of my favorite park while in uniform.
Wilder State Park is a wonderful place,  unique and beautiful and really like no place else I've been,  and I call this park home.  So I finally decide to start helping protect this lovely park and help others to enjoy it too while riding the trails in uniform.

What I don't know when I sign on to start helping in this park is that there is an incredible trail normally closed to horses that horse patrolers are allowed to ride.  The Old Cove/Bluff/Ohlone Trail starts at the visitor center parking lot and swings out along Wilder Beach and goes the distance along the bluffs to Four Mile Beach and beyond.  While cruising this gem of a trail,  pelicans fly in formation overhead,  in a V just like ducks.   Seagulls swoop this way and that.  Harbor Seals sun themselves on the low cut cliffs below.  An occasional pod of dolphins frolics in the surf as they cruise by in the cool water below us.  Bunnies and squirrels run this way and that being very very busy out there in this wild place they call home.  And even on the ride to the trailhead if you are an astute observer,  you might see one of the parks long tailed weasels scampering about as we did.

Today, my friend and I rode that trail once again.   Today's ride took us beyond where we'd ridden previously.  Sheer cliff faces,  multihued turquoise waters,  birds dipping,  soaring and flying all about, seals sunning themselves and then taking turns jumping off the rocky point to cool off in the ocean and lovely little yellow wildflowers left of the summer's abundance alternately charmed us and then took our breath away as we cruised along the cliffs of Wilder above the open ocean savoring every minute we were privileged to patrol the land's edge of our enchanting coastline.  All in a day's work for Wilder's Mounted Horse Patrol.

Rattler

Wilder State Park, Wilder Ridge via "Lookout," easy dayhike/horseback ride/bike

I distinctly remember my first encounter with a rattler. I puzzled over the sound of the rattles...and thought I would never hear another school sprinkler without thinking of a rattler as that is precisely what the rattles sounded like.  (Say Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch very rapidly.)   I also won't forget the look of abject terror in the little guy's eyes as he looked up at me after I threw water on him and came ever so close to stepping on him. We both jumped away from each other,  then stopped to look....then both went our own separate ways.    I gained a very different perspective that day about snakes.  I learned they feared.   I learned they really weren't aggressive.   I learned you could be safe if you stopped threatening.

I think all these thoughts crossed through my mind in a second on a ride last week when I was trapped on one side of the trail with my friend on the other side of a rattler who had his rattles sticking straight up in the air warning us with all his might that we'd just better not mess with him.

We were just moseying down the trail on this particular day enjoying some sun we hadn't seen much of lately.   Suddenly there was a scurrying underneath my friend's horse's legs and a big commotion that took me a second to puzzle out.    I saw her look down from her horse just as the rattler stuck his tail in the air and started warning her in no uncertain terms to move on!   She did!   She kept riding and didn't stop til she was 20 feet or so away....meanwhile,  being in the back,  I had stopped dead in my tracks a safe distance back on the trail.   Discussing what to do,  finally our rattling friend solved the issue by lowering his noisy flag and moving off.   I practiced a very nice gait transition...a standstill to a fast trot moving past his last resting spot post haste!

We were all none the less for wear including the snake,  and oddly enough,  neither of our horses could have cared less!   So much for all those horses rearing up and stomping on those evil snakes in the movies!:)

Wilder Summer Morning Ride

Wilder State Park, Englemann's Loop, moderate day hike or ride

Gentle swishing sounds of tall grasses sweeping against our horse's legs and the fog formed cool,  crisp air replace the quiet chatter that has gone on during the earlier part of the morning's ride.   For now,  all has been said,  and we three friends simply enjoy the peace of the morning's ride together as we journey on our faithful mounts soaking up the beauty of the open grasslands we're trekking through.