It was a good day for a lot of vitamin D and oxygen.
I was surprised that there was a open space reserve so close to where I live.
Fremont older OSP was located in south-west Cupertino.
About 10 minutes drive from home, somehow I've never heard of this place before.
It was quite easy to get there, just got on Prospect Ave
and headed west to the end of the road.
The parking was limited, but you could find a spot if you came early.
According to the map, we were planning to run the biggest loop,
approximately 9-10 miles.
Here was the list of the trails:
Cora Older Trail
Seven Springs loop Trail
Hunter's point
Hayfield Trail
Fern Trail
Vista Loop Trail
Steven Creek/Tony Look Trail
Coyote Ridge Trail
Hayfield Trail
Cora Older Trail
It was mid-spring, and we still caught some green here, it was gorgeous.
The run started with a little uphill on Cora Older Trail, it seems difficult for mountain bike rider, but fairly easy for runner to out run bikers during this 0.4 miles trail.
Cora Trail
Headed into forest on Seven Springs Loop Trail
When we got to the top, headed east on Seven Springs Loop Trail, to our surprise, it became downhill already. It was a single track, through a hardwood forest trail.
We caught a little breath here and then started to climb uphill again. This part of the trail
was under some kind of construction, needed to be careful about your steps here.
a little construction on the road, watch your steps.
From here, there was no shade at all. Can't imagine how hot it will be during the summer.
The climb was runnable but not short. I don't know if we didn't warm-up enough, or
the altitude was higher here, everyone started to gasp already. It was just around 2 miles
on my watch. Kai seems to struggle a little bit, and Yi said he felt weak on his legs.
Anyhow, we still managed to finish the hill and to the Hunter's point.
like tourist, we took a group photo here..
The view here was wonderful, on one side you could see the whole preserve, and the other side, you could look down to the city.
City view
Felt like the run was over, but not yet. Still about 7 miles to go. We hydrated, and took a short break, some photos. Then kept going on Hayfield Trail. The Hayfield trial was the main trail of the preserve, a big road cut through a large plain of meadow. It would be super beautiful if the grass was all green.
Hayfield Trail
If you could conquer the last section of uphill on Hayfield trial, there was another reward
for you, the Maisie's Peak , the highest point of the preserve. elevation 1200ft.
Well the scene was not breath-taking, but good enough to take a few deep breath,
and shouted : Yeah!!
The Maisie's Peak.
The map here started to get inconsistent with the sign from here, it took us sometime to find the entry point of the vista loop trail, and half way of it, we got confused by the trail
and didn't know which way lead to Steven Creak Trail.
Vista Loop Trail
So, we just went by instinct, and finally found a small entry point down a PG&E electrical tower, it was the Steven Creek Trail we were looking for.
Started from here, it was all single track, geen forest downhill trail. I really liked this trail,
it was all shaded, no sweat, connected with some little wood bridges, then, it opened up
to the Steven Creek Reservoir. The trail started to go along the lake for about 2 miles, the best part of the trail. I think if you were running the other direction, it won't be as much enjoyable as this one. We were just lucky to choose this direction.
Steven Creek Trail --1
Steven Creek Trail -- 2
Steven Creek Reservoir --1
Steven Creek Reservoir --2
The wider part of the Reservoir
When you saw this sign, it meant the fun was over, time to go home.
Fun was over, last 2.5 miles big uphill return.
Dry, rocky fireroad
The trail was wide and rocky, we need to watch out for few bikers who took a speedy downhill here. Maybe we were all tired, not much fun running on this trail.
A big tower by the road, looked scary
Yi was beat by the continuous uphill.
Kai looked pretty tired and walked his way up.
The climb was about 1 mile, elevation gain: 600 ft. It was the 5th hills we climbed that day.
The repeated up-and-down really killed us, even thought the distance was just still under 10 miles. I would say, this was a very good pre-race training route. It covered a lot of different terrain, and road conditions. Trained both our mind and endurance.
Last downhill back to Cora Trail and parking lot.
Well, we probably wouldn't visit here again for a while. Because the weather was getting
warmer. However, it was still a nice run. Every time we got beat or exhausted , we became
stronger and stronger. Of course, everyone got a lot of vitamin D today, right ?
The summary :
map
Summary
Elevation
--
Sent from my mobile device
