Last time I did this was Dec 2017. At the moment, memory of how to do it is pretty foggy, but luckily I have my earlier blog posts on this to refresh my memory so printing them out to review. (look for Kindle label in this blog to find). This book is a little easier than the others - text and inline photos, a table of contents, but no index. Susan has promised it will be out in two and a half weeks, so will try to do that. My immediate issue is that I remember that I have to make some changes to the Indesign file before putting out the epub file that I will update for Kindle, but don't remember quite what they were. Pausing to read my prior posts, and to review Kindle code for Healing Miles . From my 2012 notes I saw that to get reliable chapter breaks, each chapter had to be a separate xhtml file. The default of Indesign is to put out one big xhtml file, but it will break on a style, so I need to be sure the current Indesign document (for Walk, Hike, Saunter ) has an appropriat
Get link
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps
Oakland Hills Walk 4 - Heaven Hill and Pacific Railroad Loop 3.5 miles
Get link
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps
-
HH&PRR is about half way along this loop if you start at Lodge and Hemlock, but it is one of the highlights. I'll talk more about it and carofthefuture.org later.
One of our frequent hikes is north along Skyline to Sibley, and from there onto regional park trails. In Jan 2008 there were severe storms, and a slide blocked Skyline Blvd to all traffic, including pedestrians. In searching for an alternate way to Sibley and Huckleberry, I discovered the HH&PRR route, though didn't have a name for it at the time. The weather was still wet and stormy, so I took the closest surface I could find to the slide, and followed it north, at each intersection, choosing the rightmost (eastern) street, as that kept me closest to Skyline Blvd. It is about half through shaded small residential streets, and then climbs along undeveloped parkland (where I frequently see turkeys). That parkland is on the left. The right is steep and lightly developed, but for sale signs are posted, and some large houses are underway. The return is along Skyline Blvd, now repaired, back to the starting point.
Starting from Hemlock and Lodge we go clockwise down to Snake, cross to Thornhill, and then a sharp right on Wild Currant. We can look north across Thornhill canyon and see the high point of our loop.
Watch for metal creatures on rooftops.
Right on Glen Oak, and then down Sobrante. On the right side look for a steel footbridge leading to a dwelling. Under the bridge is a mass of green right now, no water to be seen. In the summer there is still a green band here, marking one of the few Oakland creeks that has not yet been trapped and piped. The first right hand street off of Sobrante is Thorndale, where you start up. On the way look for a three chair mini park on the left, where someone has taken about 100 sq feet of an undeveloped canyon lot, and setup and area where you can take a break. Once you stop seeing houses on the left, you are passing regional park land. Watch for turkeys from here on. Soon on the right you will see a railroad crossing sign, a small rail car, and a totem pole. This is the site of the former Heaven Hill & Pacific Railroad. There was a car stopped at the entrance as we walked by, the driver unlocking the chain blocking the driveway. He had lived there for 30+ years, and at one time had a small operating railroad. There is no longer a residence on the site, and it is probably slated for development.The current interest is his patented car of the future - sort of a motorcycle with outriggers.
Continue on up, taking a jog at Jewel Ct for a panoramic view of the bay. After that, up till you hit Elverton. There you have a choice - left to go up to Sibley for water and restrooms, or straight ahead on Elverton. Near the end of Elverton you walk along maybe 50 yards of the ugliest fence ever to slip through Oakland Planning Commission. I thought that there was a law that houses on these steep slopes were limited in how much they could obstruct the view - maybe these houses in high places had friends in high places. Shortly after that you join Skyline, walk south past Huckleberry, turn right on to Colton at the firestation and then right on Lodge back to the starting point.
Thanks for posting this. I was best friends with the son of the man who let the chain down for you. The best parts of my childhood were spent on Heaven Hill.
Thought it might aid some future trekker if I just list things as we learn them. It is now early Dec 2008, and we have reservations into Santiago, Chile for March, and back home from Buenos Aires. Now we have to fill in the in between. We got the start and end locations from a friend who visited Chile and Argentina last year, though he wasn't trekking Torres del Paine. Some other friends did do the trek about 15 years ago, so we started by borrowing all their old guide books and maps. Since then we got our own Lonely Planet Trekking in Patagonia , and a recent Torres del Paine Trekking Map . Since I'm going to keep updating this post, to keep all the Patagonia info in one spot, and try to keep a change log here: Change log: 12/14/16 *** very important*** all campsites now require advance reservations, for example at this date, all of January is already reserved. See Campsite Reservations post below for more details. 12/2014 *** important *** Any US citizen entering
This sock had elasticized top Chances are, you hot weather hikers have seen something like this. That's my leg you're looking at, yesterday's view, and not much of a concern to me since I knew what it was. The first encounter was a scare - on Susan's leg while hiking in France, and we had no idea what it was. Just it came on while hiking in very hot weather, and was right under the elasticized band of her sock, warm to the touch and puffy, but not painful. A wider, more brilliant band than you see here on my leg. A few days later, the whole foot started swelling in a major way, all the way from toes to half way up the shin, and extremely painful. That ended up with us going to emergency, where a severe infection was diagnosed, treatable with antibiotics, but we had to cancel the trip and it took two weeks for the swelling to subside. The doctors were unable to determine point of entry for the infection. They did x-rays for hairline fractures - none. Final though
Last time I did this was Dec 2017. At the moment, memory of how to do it is pretty foggy, but luckily I have my earlier blog posts on this to refresh my memory so printing them out to review. (look for Kindle label in this blog to find). This book is a little easier than the others - text and inline photos, a table of contents, but no index. Susan has promised it will be out in two and a half weeks, so will try to do that. My immediate issue is that I remember that I have to make some changes to the Indesign file before putting out the epub file that I will update for Kindle, but don't remember quite what they were. Pausing to read my prior posts, and to review Kindle code for Healing Miles . From my 2012 notes I saw that to get reliable chapter breaks, each chapter had to be a separate xhtml file. The default of Indesign is to put out one big xhtml file, but it will break on a style, so I need to be sure the current Indesign document (for Walk, Hike, Saunter ) has an appropriat
It's remarkable to have such interesting places to walk in one's own backyard so to speak!
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this. I was best friends with the son of the man who let the chain down for you. The best parts of my childhood were spent on Heaven Hill.
ReplyDelete