Yeah, behind White Hill School
baycat said:
think it is close to the school out there...
I picked up the fire road at the end of Glenn Drive, west of Fairfax proper, north of Sir Francis Drake. White Hill School is on the left near the end of Glenn Drive.
I took the fire road all the way up to the ridge, near a big water tank, where I ran into a chica who told me I was going the wrong way. So, I went back down and picked up a fire road behind the school itself. There is a Loma Alta Open Space gate, but the road itself is not signed.
After an initial climb, the fireroad basically follows a countour for a couple of miles, running somewhat parallel to SFD. It meets SFD above the Bothin kids camp just below where SFD begins to drop into San Geronimo Valley. Here, the road (SFD) is built up onto a metal overpass-type structure (public works has been fighting landslides here for years), and the trail goes *underneath* the roadway.
Once on the southern side of SFD, you are on White Hill Trail (signed) which switches back through the trees up to the ridge, where it picks up the new Porcupine trail (obvious junction). Porcupine also switches back several times up to White Hill Road (fireroad). Porcupine is a sweet trail, but pretty short. Then, it is a quick half-mile or so to the B-17 extension into Tamarancho.
It took me exactly one hour from Java Hut to the B-17 extension, including getting a little lost initially. So it is not any kind of shortcut into Tamarancho, especially since there is a fair amount of pavement between Java Hut and Glenn Drive. If I was going to enter and exit via Loma Alta, I would likely just park at the end of Glenn Drive. I think it would be more fun to go out on Porcupine/White Hill Trail, since it's all down hill. The Loma Alta fire road is nothing special.
The views from the beginning of Porcupine are pretty spectacular, though.
What I did, instead of exiting via Loma Alta, is that I came in on B-17, entered the loop clockwise, and did 1.5 loops, leaving via Alchemist and Iron Springs Road.
Sorry for being so descriptive, but that's what I did!
