Redwood Regional Park, CA

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
12/31/2016	11.5 miles	3 hours 36 minutes

Map: Available at trailhead.
Parking: See book
Directions: Not hike #32 in 60 Hikes within 60 Miles San Francisco! This book does have a hike in this park, but we decided to make up our own hike which was much longer.

Our approximate route: West Ridge Trail to the east side of the park. Turn left on Orchard Trail. Turn right on French Trail. Turn right onto West Ridge Trail.

Today I was pretty exhausted. I didn’t eat enough while hiking which added to my low energy. Mentally I was waivering between being amazed that I can hike this far and frustrated with my lack of fitness. My hip has been doing really well during this vacation. I’ve gone 2 days without Naproxen and have been able to do moderate distance hikes. I found the hills challenging. Pre-hip problems I could usually climb hills without resting. Today I had to take several short rests to catch my breath and let my legs recover. I’ll be seeing a hip arthroscopist in a couple of weeks, but I’m in a period of mild hip pain. My hip pain varies a lot in intensity and location, and I’m sure it will be more difficult for the doctor to diagnose me based on my current symptoms. I’m currently having minimal groin pain, and mild outer hip pain.

We chose a hike in the 60 Hikes within 60 Miles book, but decided to extend it rather than hiking in two separate locations today. The parking lot was packed and we had to park down the road. The park is very popular with bicyclists, joggers, and dog walkers. The park allows dogs off leash, and we saw many, many off leash dogs, all behaving appropriately. We started out on the West Ridge Trail which is a wide fire road. We stopped by the Redwood Basin – it was almost like a dog park. There were at least a dozen people in the area socializing & throwing balls for their dogs. There were only a few limited views on the ridge trail. It was an easy trail with lots of people on it. I prefer quieter trails, so on the return trip we chose the French Trail. It was less crowded, quieter, and had more redwoods. The French Trail had a lot of rolling hills which were really tiring for me today. The redwoods here are not the extremely old ones you see in some places in California.