Marin hike: Fairfax’s Rocky Ridge offers redwoods, chaparral and views
If you’re looking for a hike that will give you sweeping views, consider this six-mile moderately difficult loop takes you along Lake Alpine, through towering redwoods and up to the chaparrals on Rocky Ridge. There are some stream crossings, so difficulty will vary with footgear and how recently it has rained.
When I started at the Bon Tempe Dam, morning mist was rising off the lake. A pair of hooded mergansers swam by quite close, giving me a good view of the least common of our three species of mergansers. Their excellent underwater eyesight enables them to catch crayfish, small fish and insects under water. Numbers will decrease in mid-February as they head north to Canada to breed.
Turn right after crossing the dam and stay right at the junction of Kent and Rocky Ridge. Kent starts out as a fire road and in half a mile becomes a trail. There has been enough rain to turn the mosses green and bring up mushrooms. One yellow mushroom growing in clusters that looks stunning against the green moss is the sulfur tuft. Even if mushroom gathering was permitted on Marin Municipal Water District lands, which it is not, these are only feast for the eyes, as they are toxic.
Another clustered mushroom you will see along the trial is the honey-colored mushroom aptly named the honey mushroom. Also known as “oak root fungus,” this mushroom is a parasite that can affect trees in forests and gardens. Removing the mushrooms does nothing to stop it, as the mycelium has already affected the roots and lower part of the tree, and may also have spread through the soil to neighboring trees.
The ¼-inch to 1/2-inch bright orange-brown growing on Douglas fir logs are pinewood gingertails. In case the name makes you think of gingerbread, “California Mushrooms” says edibility unknown, and “Mushrooms Demystified” says “a miniscule morsel that is hardly worth eating.”
In two miles, Kent Trail turns left and heads uphill. In about half a mile, you reach a beautiful redwood grove with tall ancient trees and fairy rings of second-growth trees surrounding the stumps mother trees. This is a peaceful area for a picnic, though given the chilly day, I chose to push on to have my sandwich in the sun on Rocky Ridge.
Turn left on the signed Stocking Trail, named for MMWD employee Clayton Stocking who retired in 1962. He lived in the lake keeper’s residence by the Phoenix Lake dam for 42 years.
Red-breasted nuthatches like deep conifer woods, and sure enough, I heard one doing its truck-backing-up toot. It is astonishing how far the call this 1/3-ounce bird carries. Nuthatch come from nut hack, and these birds do hack at conifer cones to extract the seeds in the fall. They also eat insects, and their eggs and larvae, and spiders.
Stocking Trail passes by Hidden Lake, more of a small pond now. There is a bridge over a boggy area with an impressive stand of chain ferns. As the climb continues, the forest thins, with younger redwoods more Douglas firs and, as it approaches the ridge, bays and madrones.
Pause to enjoy the view to the east before turning left on Rocky Ridge, which is mostly treeless in this section. The chaparral is a marked contrast to the redwood groves you passed through such a short time ago.
The fire road descends 500 feet in 1.8 miles to return to the Bon Tempe dam to complete the loop.
From Highway 101 take the Sir Francis Drake Boulevard exit. When you get to Fairfax, turn left at Pacheco Avenue, then right on Broadway. At the next stop sign turn left onto Bolinas Road and continue approximately 1½ miles. Turn left on Sky Oaks Road when you see a wooden sign on your left saying, “Lake Lagunitas, Lake Bon Tempe.” Stop and pay at the toll booth or the self-pay station. Turn right on the dirt road to the Bon Tempe Reservoir, about ½ mile past the entrance gate.
Wendy Dreskin has led the College of Marin nature/hiking class Meandering in Marin since 1998, and teaches other nature classes for adults and children. To contact her, go to wendydreskin.com