On 7-17-26 we hiked up the Old Stagecoach Road from the bottom of Cuesta Grade to the summit. We had the whole trail to ourselves except for a van that passed us on the way up. It parked along the side of the road, and we could see it was packed to the gills with all the necessities of life. Two older gentleman emerged and setup shop. They were studying and sketching a cube-shaped rock with alien markings on it (see picture below). Beyond that, it was all very mysterious and they spoke only in word salad. This trail is famous for strange sightings. Barbara snapped the picture below of the Virgin Mary sitting in a tree truck. Marv Daniels our retired PG&E lineman, grafter, gleaner, trail builder and Repair Cafe disciple, is featured on the cover of a magazine.
By Friday, the heat wave had ended and the weather was perfect. In addition, most of the trail was shaded by oak trees. Parts of the trail are a paved concrete road in remarkably good condition particularly since the date 1931 was stamped on it. Back then it was still a winding two lane road. Prior to 1910 it was a wagon road. Hwy 101 was designated in 1926 and real road improvements didn't begin until 1937. So from a hiking standpoint, Old Stagecoach is a wide and flat two lane road composed of either flat concrete or compressed road base. When it comes to lack of terrain difficultly, it is about as easy as it gets. It is second only to the Bob Jones trail which is paved and smooth enough for baby buggies and wheel chairs. Our average hike has a default difficultly factor of 0.00. Stagecoach has been assigned - 0.15; Bishop peak has +0.40
Because everyone was feeling so good at the summit, we extended the hike by 1/4 mile to the beginning of TV Tower Road which rises to the KSBY transmission tower. We added about 200 feet of elevation to reach 1560 feet and a hiked a 21% grade which placed the final HHI difficulty at 33.72. The total distance ended up at 5.65 miles. The difference between the high and low points on the trail was 913 feet. Total Ascent (cumulative upward climb) was 1028 feet. We took our time. Total was just under 3 hours.
