Weekly Walker: A Short Loop on Crazy Pete's Road

[Editor's Note: Watch for this column each Thursday on Patch by local hiking enthusiast Tom Davids. Below is this week's suggested hike to Coal Creek Open Space Preserve.]

By Tom Davids

 A Short Loop on Crazy Pete’s Road in Coal Creek Open Space Preserve 

Directions: Coal Creek Open Space Preserve is located on the east side of Skyline Boulevard about 8.5 miles south of La Honda Road (Highway 84) or 0.5 mile north of the large CalTrans Vista Point parking area opposite Russian Ridge. Limited parking is available at Crazy Pete’s Road next to the road emergency call station. Use of Crazy Pete’s Road (Gate CC-04) is limited to residents and district patrol vehicles. 

Trail Map:www.openspace.org and search for Coal Creek.

Grade: Moderate. Elevation loss of 400 feet, then regain. 

Distance: Two miles.

Time: One hour.

Special Conditions: Hiking is on wide farm roads. No problem with poison oak. Dogs allowed on leash. Bikes allowed. No water or toilet facilities. Managed by Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District.

With a name like Crazy Pete, there must be some history here. In his excellent book, Peninsula Tales and Trails, author David Weintraub recounts the story of Crazy Pete. Was he an unkempt Irish hermit who lived alone in the Santa Cruz Mountains and worked as a woodchopper helping local farmers and ranchers clear their land? 

Or was he Pete Martinez or Peter Feliz, and did he get his name because he was crazy enough to build the road we hike on? Or was he an ornery logger who controlled “his” road? 

Or was he the mythical hermit created by “Sunny” Jim Rolf, a governor of California, who owned the nearby Skyline Ranch and who worried his children with stories on trips up Alpine Road, then fired his pistol a few times to frighten away “Crazy Pete”? 

Perhaps he is some of each of these.

The first account is best documented by Emma Stolte Garrod in her memoir. Crazy Pete O’Shaunessey worked for her father, and she describes him as having “piercing black eyes, a high-bridged nose, coal black hair and a beard too long and uncombed,” and that his mind “was not right.” 

After O’Shaunessey left employment by the Stoltes, he was committed to the Agnews State Hospital in Santa Clara, where he died on the morning of the 1906 earthquake.

This two-mile hike starts at Skyline Boulevard and descends into the north part of this 507-acre preserve. Start walking down Crazy Pete’s Road. 

The first third of a mile is on asphalt, as the road serves several private properties. Along the way are large madrone trees among oak and occasional fir trees. A few minutes into the hike, watch for an extra large fir tree with wide-spreading branches. Pass by several private driveways on your right. On your left, watch for filtered views to the South Bay and beyond.

When the asphalt pavement ends, continue on the hard-packed dirt road. Ahead you will see Gate CC05 to the left. In the meadow below is an old barn that serves as a storage shed for district rangers. 

This meadow, which is full of wildflowers in the spring, also provides the headwaters for Coal Creek, which flows down to join Corte Madera Creek on the west side of Alpine Road. This meadow area is closed to the public.

Walk a short distance straight ahead to Gate CC04, and pass through it into the Coal Creek Open Space Preserve. Two kiosks present a map and other “good-to-know” information. Here you begin a short 1.2-mile loop. 

Turn down Coal Road on an old farm road that gradually runs downhill adjacent to private property on your right. Live oak and madrone dominate the forest. At a drainage swale, the trail regains a bit of altitude, then turns back and down to a wide spot in the forest, where one large redwood looks peculiarly out of place. 

The junction with Crazy Pete’s Road will be just ahead. A right turn will take you to Alpine Road in 0.3 mile, where you can extend your hike all the way to Page Mill Road. Check your map to find other trail possibilities in Coal Creek Open Space Preserve.

For this loop, turn left on Crazy Pete’s Road, and begin your 400-foot climb back to the beginning. Viewpoints open up to the east as you gain altitude. In half a mile, you finish the loop and retrace your steps to the parking area on Skyline Boulevard.

Coal Creek Open Space Preserve is relatively small area, but rich in natural resources. A forest of oak, bay, fir and madrone, open view sites, wide meadows and abundant spring wildflowers make this a fine choice for any season. 

By the Way…

The madrone trees mentioned above are known for the way its thin bark peels away from the trunk and branches revealing a red, smooth surface. The large oval shaped leaves are a waxy green. Each spring, small clusters of white bell-shaped flowers bloom, maturing into large scarlet berries in late summer.

Indians made good use of the beautiful madrone for food, medicine and utensils. Berries were eaten. Roots and leaves were brewed into a tea for stomach issues and young trunks or branches were used for lodge poles. Madrone charcoal was used in the making of gunpowder.

Don’t confuse the madrone with the manzanita. The former is a tree and the latter a shrub in the Santa Cruz mountain range…however, it is much larger in warmer climate such as Henry Coe State Park near Morgan Hill.