An old guy and a young guy are playing golf, teeing off on a dogleg that angles around a grove of tall trees blocking the fairway. The old guy hits a 2 iron safely out in the grass. The young man pulls out his iron and the old guy says,
“You’re not going to use an iron, are you?”
“Well, you did.”
“Yeah, but when I was your age, I hit it over those trees.”
The young guy looks hard at his buddy, testosterone wins the day, and he pulls out his driver, tees the ball up high and hits a drive that goes up and up, and hits the top of the trees and falls down lost in the rough.
“You hit it over those trees?”
“Yeah, man. When I was your age, those trees were two feet tall.”
These second growth redwoods in the Lodato Loop Trail show us the remarkable difference in size between the younger trees and the centuries-old redwood giants, if only from the giant stumps that are left.
Like most of the coniferous forests in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Lodato Park was clear-cut in the late 1800s. The “second growth” forest that resulted from the logging was an even-aged forest with structural diversity; trees of all sizes and ages.
You can see the tremendous size difference in the fairy ring photo between the remaining stump of the first-growth redwood compared to the second-growth redwoods that surround it. A dense, even-aged forest can have more than 200 trees per acre; a healthy old growth forest has as few as 35.
This 1.3-mile loop trail near Scotts Valley, California, has been hiked by so many people for 50 years the stones in the path have been polished by the soles of their feet. I found the short and easy trail a wonderful evening walk with stunning beauty. The trailhead is in the rear parking lot of a business office complex at 1800 Green Hills Road. Pay attention to where you walk: I stepped over a garter snake and a banana slug.
I had just done a 90-minute show at Brookdale Senior Living and Memory Care in Scotts Valley and was still high from performance rush and needed to chill out. This little beautiful loop, so easy to get to and park, was just what I needed to burn off the adrenaline.
I have a vision that business folks working at their desks in the business office complex in front of the trail do exactly that. I bet some of them take lunch breaks to go to the back of the parking lot and let some of the office stress melt away on the loop. Pick up the pace and you could do it in 45 minutes.
What does a loop hike mean? Loop trails start and end at the same location and follow a single trail or multiple trails to form a loop. Out-and-back trails start and end at the same location and follow a single trail or multiple trails to an end point and then return along the same route.
On the southwest side of the mountain, you look down upon Highway 17; traffic noise can match the volume of the wind rustling the trees above you. The wind in the trees is all about temperature change and motion, and the distant whish of the cars on Highway 17 is also about heat exchange and motion, and you can listen to find similarities.
The real way to enjoy solitude from traffic noise is to put earth between you and the road. As the trail winds through the bottoms of hollows, it becomes quite still. Even the redwoods are quiet down there.
The felling of these giants was very profitable, but I hate it. If King Kong was swinging around in the US National Forest, would we not try to save him? Forest Park Conservancy describes the felling of these giants with axes and two-person handsaws: it was described as a terrifying noise, a ‘roar’ that sounded like “the heaviest artillery, or like the blast of thunder from a near-striking bolt,” as centuries-old trees came crashing to the ground.
The park was part of a 50-acre parcel that was gifted to Scotts Valley in 1974 by Frank Lodato, son of an Italian immigrant railroad worker. Lodato was a Boy Scout and eventually became national commander of the Eagle Scouts Society, so hiking was clearly in his blood. None other than Ronald Reagan appointed him first chairman of the Central Coastal Conservation Commission.
Lodato was a venture capitalist, he developed the 41st Avenue shopping center in Capitola, and later purchased of the eastern side of Scotts Valley and built a business park. Part of the land behind this office development were steep hills, no parking lot opportunity here, and when Lodato gave the land to the city of Scotts Valley, the residents voted to turn it into a park: Lodato Park.
About Lodato Loop Trail: This is a little-known gem. Never crowded, the trails are beautiful and shady. Dogs must be on a leash. Good hike for a short afternoon. Lots of cool plants and fungi; some parts are slightly muddy but nothing drastic. My guess, it’s muddy in wet weather. My Vibram souls on my hiking boots make me an All-Terrain Vehicle and work for these steep creek-cuts and switchbacks, which are narrow with steep drop-offs. Some narrow parts made a woman a bit nervous with a baby on her back.
Short, surprisingly empty, gorgeous hike if you’re looking for a quick one.
