Monte Bello Open Space Preserve

Three weeks after our hike in the Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve, we decided to up the ante and do a 4.5 trail run.  Wow.  I'm pretty sure I messed up my back so much that I had to see a chiropractor stat.  We survived and there weren't many photos to show for it.  I hope to go back because we only did 4.5 miles of the 6.7 mile loop.

Now, Monte Bello Open Space Preserve (#48/60) in the Santa Cruz Mountains (Note: photos are limited because we were running it):

Me with my new car! The car fits our new outdoorsy lifestyle. lol

I should mention that this hiking location is a mere 25 minutes from my work.  In fact, it's 25 minutes south on the same road my firm is located.

We are so lucky.

The strange thing about the hikes we've been on here is that they are mostly fire roads.  Very different from the hiking I had done before in Maine.

And that was Monte Bello Open Space Preserve.

The whole concept of an "open space preserve" is a little weird for us.  According to their website, there are 26 open space preserves in the Bay Area.  Apparently, these were all made in the early 1970's via a voter initiative.