Discovering the Los Gatos Creek Trail in San Jose

It was Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday and Andrew had the day off, so we decided to go and explore somewhere new. We jumped on the Caltrain to San Jose with our bikes and a nice salad (yes there is such a thing) for lunch which included my homemade mozzarella. We planned to cycle the Los Gatos Creek Trail, which runs for almost 10 miles to the Lexington Reservoir County Park.

I entertained myself on the train by listening to the Podcast Harsh Reality: The Story of Miriam Rivera, which is really good by the way – I hadn’t previously heard of Miriam Rivera or the reality TV dating show There’s Something About Miriam, but it seems bonkers in this day and age that they made this show at all!

As we were cycling from the train station, it took us about 35 minutes to make our way to the trail. Some of the exciting sights on this part of the route included a dramatic-looking water tower, some upside trollies and a house that seems to have missed the memo that Christmas is over: the garden was chock full of inflatable snowmen, one of whom had fallen over and deflated in a rather tragic manner.

Once we reached the trail, things started looking up. For most of the route, you are cycling past some sort of water feature, whether it be a creek, lake or river. Early on Andrew spotted a tortoise (or was it a turtle?) having a lovely sunbathe on a tree branch. I am afraid the quality of the photo is pretty rubbish as I had to zoom in with my phone.

The trail, for the most part, was pretty flat, and we zoomed along for an hour or so before stopping at Vasona Lake Country Park for our lunch. We sat down at a picnic table, then swiftly moved to a bench by the lake due to the stench of cigars – some blokes in the table next to us were puffing on some hardcore Cuban cigars, which seemed a rather odd thing to do at 1 pm in a country park.

Fed and watered, we continued our cycle to Lexington Reservoir County Park. One thing we both noticed was the number of dog parks in San Jose – small enclosed spaces for doggies to run about lead-free and play with the other woofets. We don’t really have these in the UK and I think they’re a great idea.

The last few miles of the cycle were on a gravelly path and we were a bit worried our bicycle tyres might burst, but fortunately, we avoided this fate. The trail ended with an incredibly gnarly hill, which I was determined to conquer. I did just about manage to get to the top, but it wasn’t a pretty sight and I could barely stand up as my legs were trembling so badly.

We were rewarded with some pretty spectacular views of the canyon and lake, and after snapping a few photos it was time to return from whence we came. The sun was shining and we had a lovely amble back to the train station. We arrived about 40 minutes before our train, so we popped around the corner to Whole Foods, which had its own bar, where the only thing on the menu was beer. I hate beer, so settled for a terribly pretentious can of caffeinated health juice with mango and ginger. It was revolting – I should have just had a beer!