Black Mountain Trail, Rancho San Antonio Preserve



This week we decided to trek Black Mountain Trail in Rancho San Antonia Open Space Preserve. The return loop trail to Black Mountain is around 9.4 miles from the entrance of the park. We left for the park early morning, and reached the entrance at Rhus Ridge Trail by 8.15 am.  The park has only 11 parking spots, and by the time we reached the lot was already full. So we had to drive towards the Foothill College, we found the parking around half a mile away from the entrance.  We walked back to the park. At the entrance, a gentleman followed us in the car, and warned us about mountain lion sighting 2 days earlier. There were few posters at the entrance warning mountain lion threat. We still decided to go on with our trek with the hope that we get to see the mountain lion.

Weather was little cloudy but comfortable. The first part of Rhus Ridge Trail is is pretty steep for 0.9 miles and goes through wooded area. We saw few deers on the way. On the way up, you get to see a beautiful view of bay. They you get to apoint where 5 trails meet. At this point we turned right onto Black Mountain Trail.  This part of the trail has moderate grade for next 2 miles and is mostly shaded with oak trees. We also saw few very cold madrone trees. We got to hear lot of birds on the way and also crossed many lizards.

Once the shade disappears, you get under the power line. This is where we made another right turn. We saw ugly Kaiser quarry on the east side of trail. Now the trail becomes very steep for next mile and half. It was very tiring as it had become sunny we were walking a steep grade. As soon as we finished the steep part we arrived at the towers at the Monte Bello Road. Walking another 5 minutes, we arrived at the Black Mountain peak. We saw the USGS marker. Now the weather had become little chiller and windy. 
We had few snacks and enjoyed the view for few minutes before starting our return journey.  The steep downhill was little difficult on my knees.  We had a docile rattle snake sighting on the way back. I guess it was sunning itself. We walked back pretty fast to the base. We finished the trail by 1.00 pm. It was around 11 miles on my NewYu with approximately 2800 feet height gain. Overall it was a very satisfactory hike. I would rate this as moderately difficult hike.

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