California county high point

I went out to California just to do some running with Boltski (Richard Bolt).  Actually I went out to run the Lithia Loop Trail marathon but due to injury I wasn't ready to race.  I went out anyway because hanging out with Richard is always fun.

We went right from the airport to the hills above Mountain View and headed out for a 7 mile run that included an ascent/descent of Black Mountain (2,800').  Not much to see due to the fog rolling in, but we did see a lot of deer.  Temps drop to low 40's and I wished I brough gloves!

After bagging Black Mountain Richard and I drove over to Castle Rock State Park (http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=538) to get the Santa Clara county high point.  We checked out the driveway mentioned in the other trip reports but didn’t feel confident about parking there.  We went back to the nearest Castle Rock parking area and ran the 6/10^th of a mile to the gated driveway.  One gate was open and signed the other was closed but unsigned.  We quietly jogged up the dirt road and spotted a tree heavily flagged with orange surveyor tape.

The benchmark was located next to the tree.  The highest ground appeared to be a few feet SW of the benchmark.  We took a few pictures and headed back to the car.  Total time including taking pictures was 15 minutes for the approximately 1.5 miles round trip run.