Completed: January 07, 2024 | Elevation: 1,558′ | Trail: San Carlos Fire Road > Middle Burdell Fire Road > Cobblestone Fire Road > Old Quarry Trail > San Carlos Fire Road Loop | Distance: ~4 miles
The first weekend of January 2024 found us back on the trail, continuing our quest to complete all of the Bay Area’s Nifty 90. Originally, we had challenged ourselves to do every peak in 2023, but due to several trips that took us out of town, there just weren’t enough weekends to complete them all. Now that we’re starting the year with only 13 left, the current plan is to finish the remaining Nifty 90s in the next few months (definitely not another year if we can help it).
Mount Burdell turned out to be an interesting one. The Sierra Club’s list shows this mountain in Olompali State Historic Park. When I had initially done my research in 2023, the park was indefinitely closed due to storm damage. As a result, I didn’t dig further into it, but I should have because when the park re-opened in November of 2023, and I was planning our hike, I discovered that Mount Burdell can actually be accessed from Mount Burdell Open Preserve, right next door. There was no need to wait for Olompali State Historic Park to re-open. Oh well.
That’s how we found ourselves in Novato, on a beautiful Sunday, getting ready to hike to the top of Mount Burdell. Parking was along a residential street and fortunately, we found a spot near the entrance to the preserve.
It had rained across the Bay Area the day before so portions of the trail were muddy and the creek was running which made for two fun water crossings. We followed the AllTrails route, which climbed gradually through some forested sections before turning onto Cobblestone Fire Road, which we quickly learned was aptly named. It was from this portion of the trail, now that we were high enough, that we could see the bay and surrounding communities.
A communications tower came into view, but I soon realized that unlike other Nifty 90s we had climbed, this one did not mark a summit. We reached a short, rocky spur that led to the unremarkable top of Mount Burdell.
We headed down via Old Quarry Trail, also very aptly named. It was slightly steeper and because of the large, loose rocks in several areas, made for a more challenging descent. I missed (actually, forgot about) the second turn onto a stretch of the Old Quarry Trail that joined Middle Burdell and San Carlos Fire Roads, so we went a little out of our way on the return than necessary and also didn’t get to hike a new route. All together, the hike took us about two hours.
Back at the car, we popped into downtown Novato for lunch, taking advantage of these hikes to explore places we don’t usually travel to. Hike done, bellies full, it was time to drive back home.
Follow our progress bagging the Bay Area’s Nifty Ninety here.