Ben, Shreya, and I did a one-night backpacking trip in Palo Alto in September 2023. I was quite sick during it (tested positive for covid after) but still had a great time! We walked from my apartment up to Arastradero preserve. It was cool walking directly from my door without taking any other mode of transportation. Ben and Shreya did not like my plan of walking in the bike lane for half a mile on Page Mill Road, so we instead crossed the street and walked in the dirt (not ideal but okay and short). For the record, I too would not recommend walking in the bike lane … hoards of bikers sometimes ride past. After the 3 mile walk to Arastradero, the rest of the hike to Black Mountain was entirely through preserves. We went through Arastradero, Foothills, Los Trancos, and Monte Bello. We camped at the Black Mountain backpack camp, which can be reserved online for $2 per camper. After a yummy mac n cheese dinner, we settled in for the night.
The next day, we hiked through Monte Bello, Skyline Ridge, Russian Ridge, Coal Creek, and Coal Mine Ridge preserves to Alpine Road. We walked a little until we got cell service and then called an uber to drive us the last five miles back to my apartment. It was cool to string together so many preserves into one trip and to start the hike from my apartment! The hiking in Palo Alto is great, and I hope to do more overnight trips like this one in the future. For more detailed information on the preserves we hiked through, please see my Palo Alto preserves post.