Tier Point Run to San Jose in Nov 2023: Day 6 – San Jose – Morning

My final full day in San Jose – looking forward to making the most out of it.

I’ll be able to check in on my flights home as well. A little closer to being back home with the Vickster.

A relatively good night’s sleep was enjoyed, split into two. I slept for about 2 hours late evening; had a break until after midnight; then enjoyed another 4 hours, waking at around 4:30am.

At that point, Vick had numerous appointments booked in to deal with her finger, which was really good news.

On a weekday, it’s so much easier to find a Starbucks that is open early in the morning!

There’s one just up the road on First Street.

After another enjoyable Starbucks at silly o’clock, I had an early breakfast at the Hampton Inn. Some bran flakes and English muffins were the order of the day.

I didn’t bother with a third course on this occasion.

I got packed up and decided to head out and search out Los Gatos Creek Trail, starting at the most southerly point at Lexington Reservoir County Park.

It was about 16 miles from the hotel and there’s limited parking, but when I got there (around 9:30am) it was almost empty.

After paying the $6 fee for parking, I started my hike along the Los Gatos Creek Trail.

At that time in the morning, it was well shaded, but I could tell that on the way back, it might be quite exposed.

There was an initial steep drop down to the creek, which I was really looking forward to on the way back!

The first mile and a half or so, was not that interesting – the main road was quite noisy running alongside the trail about 100 ft up on the left hand side.

The creek was about 30 ft below on the right hand side.

There was a fairly hefty looking pipe running alongside the trail as well, likely transporting water.

So overall not that an attractive path.

But there were lots of people using it: some walking, some biking.

The next section after the Forbes Mill Footbridge was a little more interesting with a centre line painted on the path all the way to Vasona Lake and beyond (I assume).

The guys in this photo was pushing a pram and he overtook me.

I wasn’t hanging around so that gives you an indication as to how fast he was walking.

Interestingly, on the way back I caught up with him and he didn’t have the pram with him at that point.

So assume he must have dropped his child off somewhere at Vasona Lake.

The trail ends up at Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad, beyond which there’s a short walk to Vasona Lake.

The trail goes beyond that for another 6 or 7 miles, but I was ready to turn around by this point.

Apparently, north of Campbell, it turns into another homeless sanctuary, so it was good to start my hike from the southern most point.

Vasona Lake looked a lovely place to spend a bit of time. Very relaxing.

For me it was the point at which I turned around and headed back.

It took me about an hour to walk the 3 miles down to Vasona Lake and another hour to walk back.

I was well knackered when I got back. I was right about the trail not having that much shade on the walk back to the car. Glad I had a bottle of water with me.

That final climb up to Lexington Reservoir was a killer.

Follow the whole story here: Tier Point Run to San Jose in Nov 2023