(un)PTO Hiking: Tilden, Muir Woods, and Old Colma Loop

I was doomscrolling the news on my phone a few weeks ago, and came across this article on SFGate: “The Bay Area hiking club for the unemployed and recently laid off.” I saw that their next hike was going to be near me, so I had to give it a go!

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I went on a hike for unemployed people in Tilden Park, near Berkeley.

I lost my job in a RIF (Reduction In Force) at Oracle last September, where I had worked for 23 years. It was pretty devastating and I’ve been quite socially isolated. But I’m trying to get myself out there more, and this group seemed like it would be a good step in that direction. I’ve gone on three (well technically two) hikes so far:

Hike 1: Tilden

I went on a hike for unemployed people in Tilden Park, near Berkeley.

It was a surprisingly grey day, given that we were almost done with April. We all met up at the quarry parking lot on Wildcat Canyon Road in Tilden Regional Park, and we did get rained on a bit, but overall it was a great experience. Some people brought their doggos, and all were well-behaved. I’d call it an intermediate level hike, with some steep sections and rough ground, but also plenty of mostly level ground.

People chatted on the trail about their careers and job searches, of course, exchanging ideas for job hunting and sharing what they’d been doing before getting laid off.

Map to trailhead
AllTrails link
location: tilden regional park
4.3mi / 990ft gain
estimated time: 2.5–3 hr

Hike 2: Muir Woods Summit Loop

I tried to join the hike for unemployed people in and around Muir Woods, but ended up late and hiking alone.

I’ve heard so many good things about Mt. Tamalpais (often shortened to Mt. Tam) and Muir Woods National Monument, but had never visited either one in my 55 years of living in or near the Bay Area! This changed at last.

However, I am sad to say, I was late getting to the trailhead. When I got there, one other person was there, and he was waiting for some people he said were coming soon. But I wanted to get with the main group, and thought maybe they would be taking some breaks or pauses and if I hiked hard I could catch up.

That was a ridiculous idea, as it turns out.

I ended up taking the wrong fork at the very beginning, hiking up a very steep hill to a neighborhood of fancy houses with amazing views. I hadn’t had any service on my phone until I got up there, and when I did I realized I’d gone awry. Luckily I had downloaded the map on AllTrails so I had some idea where to go. I found a path that led back to the proper trail, and ended up doing the hike alone the whole way. I made a couple of other wrong turns too, which only made it take longer. I ended up hiking over 8 miles, of what was supposed to be a 4.8 mile hike!

After a lot of traversing up and down hills through meadows and forests, the trail descended down into the valley of Muir Woods. Once there, the trail followed the creek into the main park area, with a boardwalk built to protect the tree roots. I saw the spot where the United Nations dignitaries assembled after WWII, and there was a snowy egret fishing in the creek. Before I got to the park entrance, I came across a group sitting and listening to a volunteer docent giving a talk. I stuck around and learned a few things, and strongly recommend if you go that you try to be there for that. I believe it’s every day at 10:30am and 1:30pm.

At the visitor’s center I bought a couple souvenirs, got a National Parks Passport stamp, used the bathroom, and exited to the parking lot. Normally to visit Muir Woods you have to make a reservation just to get into the parking lot! But we parked along Highway 1 way up on the ridge, and hiked down, bypassing that requirement. We technically parked in Mt. Tamalpais State Park, and hiked the Sun, Redwood, Panoramic, Fern Creek, and Dipsea trails.

However, the hike back UP to the car was brutal. It followed the Dipsea Trail, a very steep and winding path through the forests, with many sections built as stairs (old railroad ties holding back the dirt). At the top of the first big flight of these stairs I met a woman who was resting, having just climbed it, and we chatted briefly, and agreed to walk together. It was nice to have some companionship for part of the hike, after going that far alone. She was in town for a work conference, which was due to start later in the week, and had some free time to go sightseeing. I ended up driving her to the ferry building, which was on my way home to Richmond.

It’s a great hike, but it was really rough climbing out. Not for the faint of heart.

Map to trailhead
AllTrails link
4.8mi / 977ft gain
estimated time: 2.5–3 hr

Hike 3: Old Colma Loop

I went on a hike for unemployed people along the lovely California coast bluffs on the Old Colma Loop trail near Devil's Slide, south of Pacifica.

For this hike we had a TV crew meeting us at the trailhead! ABC 7 News sent a reporter/camera operator team to film footage of us as we started off, but they didn’t make it up the first hill … Here’s the news coverage figured I’d be in the background somewhere, but I haven’t spotted it

video and webpage describing our hike. I wasn’t featured, but I

if I am. Between the SFGate story and this, and with all the layoffs that continue to happen with tech jobs, I’m sure we’re going to see some huge turnouts going forward!

This hike had the hardest part up front: a brutal slog straight up the hill from the parking lot near Gray Whale Beach. But once we made it up there, the rest was pretty mild. We did a looping tour around the hills, a mix of single-file trails, fire roads, and old disused highway or rail rights-of-way. This was right below the Tom Lantos Tunnels that were built a few years ago to bypass Devil’s Slide, a notoriously crumbly bit of California coast that was always collapsing and blocking or wiping out the highway. For people who lived just south of there, that meant a massive detour through Half Moon Bay to get to San Francisco! But that’s all in the past, now we have these spiffy tunnels that opened in 2013 (two separate bores for the two directions, each having a car and bike lane).

The views of the Pacific and coastlines north and south were spectacular! And lots of wildflowers and nice vegetation. I saw a couple of lizards, but I think with 50+ people tramping through the landscape, most animals would have hidden long before they could be seen.