For Labor Day, my dad and I ate out at Bella Saratoga. We shared a veggie California pizza and eggplant parmigiana before setting off for a hike at Big Basin. The pizza was interesting because it was so different from the norm. There was no pizza sauce; it was more like a salad and bread with big glops of Burrata cheese thrown on top.
Post lunch is when our mishaps started to occur. After driving longer than expected down Highway 9, we found that Big Basin was closed due to construction. Not wanting our drive to be wasted, we looked for the closest hiking trail. I saw the Saratoga Toll Road and we decided to go for that.
Halfway down Toll Trail, we went for a side route hoping it would take us to the Skyline Trail. That was a big mistake. These smaller trails were labeled with names (Knoll, Chute, North, Madrone, etc) but did not show up on any maps. They also had many more weeds / rough terrain. Our legs and socks got covered with spiky seeds that were a pain-in-the-ass to remove.
At one point, we could honestly say we were lost. With the help of GPS and Google Maps (thankfully I had offline data), we finally found our way back to Toll Trail.
