Every now and then the HikeABull organizers will go out with a smaller group of hikers in search of new hikes. Recently a group of us when to Loch Lomond in the Santa Cruz mountains.

Following directions found online, we set out nice and early one morning in search of a new area in which to bring a HikeABull group.

From San Jose, Loch Lomond is roughly 35 miles away, and situated in the Santa Cruz mountains.

The Hike Starts at the Marina, which is a picture perfect setting.

From the Marina, the hike meanders along the lake for the first couple of miles. This first stage is primarily single track, and is really only wide enough to allow one human and one dog. As this part of the trial follows the outline of the lake, the trial is fairly flat with no serious inclines.

After following the outline of the lake for a couple of miles, the trails widens and at the same time slowly starts to climb upwards.

Looking at the GPS data from this hike revealed that the high point of the hike was 1150’ with a gain of around 600’, however, the climb was a gradual to the top of the ridge without any significant steep inclines. The one problem we did notice while climbing up to the top was that the humidity, we put this down to the hot weather and the close proximity to the lake. We conducted this exploratory hike in July, if we’d completed this hike in fall, the humidity may be lower and make trekking through the forest easier.

The view from the summit was spectacular, as seen in the following photo.

After reaching the summit, the hike winds back down the other side of the ridge to the starting point. Like the climb up to the top, the trail was wide and a gradual decent without any steep sections to worry about.

All in all, this was a great day out and a great way to spend a day away from the office. Hopefully you’ll see a hike around Loch Lomond appearing on the HikeABull schedule in the not too distant future.

Distance / Category / Difficulty

Distance : ~4.4 miles (round trip)
Difficulty : Moderate / strenuous (elevation gain +747)
Elevation (max) : +1168
Time : 2.5 - 3 hours
Trail Surface : Dirt