7-8 March 2021
Waterfall loop, Hillside Trail loop, Bald Mountain Loop
(7 miles, +1,700/-1,700 feet).

“When can you party?”

That’s what I asked my parents when I heard they got their second dose of COVID vaccine.

“About two weeks!” they said.

So I marked it on my calendar, and planned a trip to Davis to see them.  After such a long pandemic, it was really good to give (and get!) lots of hugs.  And to make it even better, we decided it was time for another hiking adventure.

We drove my mom’s RV to a local state park called Sugarloaf Ridge just to do an overnight.  And my son, who happens to be attending college in Davis, also came along.  Sweet!

We arrived at our site by the creek Sunday morning just as the previous occupants were pulling out (perfect!) and once I got my tent set up we took our first hike, a loop to view a nearby waterfall.

There was lots of downhill at first, and I worried a little that it would mean a tough climb out.

But the descent eventually ended and we found where a waterfall might have been if California wasn’t in a drought.

We crossed a road to get to the Pony Gate Trail and started climbing in woods and through meadows.  There were even a few wildflowers!

We got back to camp and had some lunch and then went to check out an observatory at the park.  It was just a locked-up building, but it did sit at the trailhead of the Meadow Trail, so we decided to do another loop hike, wrapping around back to the Hillside Trail.  Here we saw more flowers and even some deer.

That night we gorged on hot dogs and let grandma win a game of Five Crowns.  And after a delicious sleep we did one more hike in the chilly morning, taking the Stern Trail up to the Lower Bald Trail to make another nice loop.

The Lower Bald Trail was really nice — so much so that ZoZo said when she comes back she might just do that one as a there-and-back hike.

It was a perfect way to wrap up our trip, and we left sure that we would come back one day.