Henry Coe, Kelly Lake, Backpacking

This past weekend I went backpacking in Henry Coe with JeremyShapiro, Matt Cutts, and David Signoff.

We hiked in on a perfect day from the Hunting Hollow entrance on a gorgeous day, a grueling climb up Middle Steer Ridge Trail, a short stroll along Steer Ridge Road to lunch at Wilson Peak where we saw a deer also relaxing and having lunch. We backtracked slightly and quickly descended half the elevation we just gained down Serpentine Trail. Back up on Tule Pond Trail, following the ridge on Wasno Road, then Wagon Road, and then a very steep descent down Kelly Lake Trail to Kelly Lake. Total distance: roughly 10 miles

There were 4 parties including ourselves overnighting at Kelly Lake. Beautiful spot, but lacking for ideal campsites and we weren't the first to arrive. I think I still prefer having Redfern pond to myself 2 years ago to sharing Kelly Lake with others. Serenaded by birds and then frogs, our crew played cards and then got a good nights' sleep.

The next morning, rain clouds started appearing so we packed up camp quickly and headed out. Our plan was to stick to trails back to Hunting Hollow, but we hit some moderate rain on the return hike and so took a shortcut. Back up Kelly Lake Trail on the other side, ridge walking on Wasno Road until descending on Dexter Trail which is when the rain hit, and then a moderate descent along Grizzly Gulch Trail until we reached the Coyote Creek park entrance. From there, only a 2 mile flat walk back to Hunting Hollow Entrance where my car was getting a nice shower. Total distance: roughly 7 miles.

I found a similar hike done by another crew, with GPS map and altitude here: Hunting Hollow to Kelly Lake round trip with GPS. That trip was 20 miles with 6800ft of elevation gain/loss.