[Introduction music, taken from Hyrule Symphony's 'The Legend of Zelda Medley']

Hello, my name is Steven Fetter and I am making up this podcast about Rancho San Antonio open space reserve, near Los Altos. [laughter in background]. It is a piece of regional history about, that centers around the deer hollow farm, which was donated by the Grant family sometime in the past 50 years. I’ll be going on the wildcat loop trail which is 3 or 4 miles that goes, starts at the beginning of the park, and goes up to vista point, and then down the. You can choose several trails, I'll be going down the High meadow trail past deer hollow farm and then out. Parking at this park is rather difficult on the weekends. There is two parking lots that constantly pretty full, but if you find St. Joseph’s road, you can park there with less hassle. Should be aware that you should bring water and beware of mountain lions and ticks, as they both appear in this park, although I’ve never had a problem with them. But yes, I will now continue my hike and will speak again when I have reached the trail head.

[Music, taken from Hyrule Symphony's 'The Legend of Zelda Medley']

Hello again. So I am now at the trail head. To get to the trail head, you would walk down the main road, follow it for a-ways and eventually you'll pass deer hollow farm, go past a gate, and turn left. And you see the trail head. There is a... three signs that have maps and information of the park here, and there is also water fountains and bathrooms for those who need them. Deer hollow farm itself is a rather nice place. It is a working farm run by, I believe, the state of California in some capacity. Or a local government of some sort. It has several animals. Goats, hogs, some sheep, a cow, crows, fairies (sarcasm), other things. It's a educational farm. They do a lot of field trips for young children and have examples of what It was like to live on a farm around the early 1900's. The farm was actually donated by the grant family in like 1975 or sometime around that year. I should have more information on that later on the site. So, I’m walking the bobcat loop trail, wildcat loop trail, I apologize, which comes out to a little over 2 miles, there is a optional of going up to the vista point, which gives you a very nice view of the valley. I will be talking there in a moment. This, the park itself has quite a selection of trails. Wildcat loop trail is one of the easier one, one of the more different ones would be the PG&E trail, which has a lot of elevation gain and is very good for those who want a more serious hike. All trails are fairly easy to find and follow. There are regular posted maps and you can maps off, off, the site of the park. So ya, its a nice place. I grew up near here and came here as a lot as a child. There are trails for a variety of activities. there’s, you can hike, you can bike, there’s a lot of joggers, you can ride horses. Of course, you have to bring your own horse, which I've never been able to do. But in theory, you could if you where so included. Because it;s so close to Los Altos, and several of the cities, it a very popular place, specially in the weekends, so early is better and be prepared to walk a bit to get to the actual park, if the parking lots are filled. There is, there are places to eat lunch. There's several vista points, were there is generally benches, there's also, near dear hollow farm, a old barn space which with pinic tables. If you're hear on... during school hours, especially near summer time, there tends to be a lot of small children from field trip from local schools and other such groups. But yes, its a very nice place to go for an easy hike or the family, if you are older and have probably not in college. I, however, being in college, tend to go here just for recreational and fun times on the weekend. The park does close after dark. Although, I’m not sure how strict they are in finding you and kicking you out. There is fair amount of wild life. There are turkeys, there are, as I said before, mountain lions and ticks. neither of which I’ve ever had a problem with. There's also coyotes which I've never seen, but the ones I generally see are rabbits, deer, and turkeys. There's a very.. fairly sizable.. herd.. wild turkey population. I'm not sure if the, what the correct note for a flock of turkeys is, but there is one of them here. And they can get rather ornery. So yes, I will continue speaking when I have reached vista point, which I’m going past deer hollow farm, up the wildcat loop trail, then around the wildcat loop trail again, from the junction with upper wildcat trail canyon up to vista point; For those of you who may have a map open. So yes, I’ll speak to you soon.

[Music, taken from Hyrule Symphony's 'The Legend of Zelda Medley']

Hello again, I;m now at vista point. I can see most of the south bay, I can see think its Dumbarton bridge, all the way, shoreline amphitheater, the mofit field, golf course, I can see lots of San Jose, and deeper south, the south bay, its actually very spectacular view. Because its a bit cloudy today I can't really see the other side of the valley, but on a clear day, you can get a great view of pretty much the entire south bay and if you get a little higher, there’s a view of San Francisco, its just a fantastic view. Where, from where I am, there, there, are, are the foothills down and then cities of Los Altos, Sunnyvale, San Jose, and so on. Very nice, very, very wooded city. It looks almost like a forest from up here. The houses, when down there doesn't really feel like that. On a wildlife note, there actually are some deer out today. There’s a couple grazing on the field below the hill. I see four, five of them, six, just deer grazing and chillin' out. From here, behind me, I can see the, the, I think, the Santa Cruz mountains, well the mountains that are bordering the west side of the bay area. Can't really see over them, because there's fog today, but they're usually very nice and green. Although the fields this year have been rather dry looking due to drought. So this is one of the areas I like to go when I'm in the park. Just because its such a nice view, there’s some nice wood benches and fences you can sit on, eat lunch, have a break, depending what time you're here, what your plans are. Its a pretty easy hike, 'bout 2 miles, as I've said 2-3 miles, although you can make it longer, depending on which which route you take. Ya, its a nice place. There's, you can see the, a water tank of the park and several trails. You can see other people, you can see cars, you can see freeways. A golf course, as I'd mentioned before. You can see an old Jesuit monastery that there used to be a university on the, on the, I suppose the south end of the park. You used to be a Jesuit university for priests, but during the earth quake in the early 90's, Loma Prieta earthquake. The parts of the school got damaged so they took it down and moved on. But The monastery is still there. It's actually an active monastery, I don't think.. you can.. I think you can visit. But I'm not sure how, I’ve never done so. But it's there for visitors, I suppose, if you are interested in monasteries and Jesuit orders but ya, it's again, a very nice view, a very good place to stop, take a break, just see the, the bay area, I’ll continue when I’ve reached the bottom of the trail back around deer hollow farm.

[Music, taken from Hyrule Symphony's 'The Legend of Zelda Medley']

Hello again. I'm now back at the trail head. So, it's a good hike. 2 miles. Be aware that because this park is located in the foothill, trails do tend be rather hilly. They get some steep. They aren't very hard, just be prepared for some elevation gain, not to much but enough to be a challenge. There is poison oak in the park, as I once discovered to my displeasure. So try to stay on the trails and avoid running through green stuff, especially if it looks poison oak. So, it, it's good to note that this park is very adaptive to what you want to do, there’s a lot of trails, a lot of trail combinations. I think the longest straight run is estimated to be around 16 miles, somewhere around there. Although you can make many many many combinations with the various trails to make as long or a short as you would like. The maps are pretty good about showing how much elevation gain there is. So, take a look at the map. It should be online, I will, there will be a link below. And again, the trail head for the wildcat loop trail is right by the farm and its a very, it's nice farm, look through and see animals, it's, they do allow, you can pet them. although, don't try to feed any of them that tends to be bad, especially for, you know, pigs and goats and cows. Its very educational, if you are interested in either animals, or if you have children. Although its not very detailed. It's made for younger children. But you, there are staff that you can probably talk to about more complicated farm issues if you so desire. So, ya thank you for joining me on this hiking podcast, and I hope you make it out to Rancho San Antonio, the open space reserve. Near Los Altos. Steven Fetter, signing off.

[Music, taken from Hyrule Symphony's 'The Legend of Zelda Medley']