Some years ago Veralyn and I had Thanksgiving on a bench overlooking Berry Falls in Big Basin. It was a wonderful day, even better than the Thanksgiving we ate crab cocktails and French bread on a bench overlooking the boats at Fisherman's Wharf. There is something special and memorable about getting out of the box.

If you are single, invite a friend--someone who also expects to be alone for the holiday. Take the picnic of your choice, but here is one idea. Assemble three quarts of water, one cup of instant potatoes, a quarter cup of butter, a small can of cranberries, several slices of cooked or smoked turkey from the deli, a package instant gravy, a loaf of French bread, and your favorite beverage. Put them a backpack along with a backpack propane stove, a cooking pot, a couple plates, silverware, napkins, and a kitchen towel to serve as a tablecloth. Hike to your special place, light the stove, boil water, and add the potatoes with butter. Then heat the gravy, throw in the turkey, heat well, and pour over the potatoes. Serve hot with the cranberries, and French bread on the side. Substitutions of your choice are allowed, even encouraged.

Your destination is a large wooden platform on the Ridge Trail about a mile and a half from the trailhead.

This hike is in the north portion of the 1,580-acre Russian Ridge Preserve, part of the Midpeninsula Open Space District and named for a Russian immigrant who lived on the east side of the ridge from the early 1920s to about 1950. Another link with Russian culture and tradition was a Russian Orthodox convent that operated on the property for a short time. During earlier history, James Rolph Jr., who served as mayor of San Francisco before becoming governor of California in 1930, owned the property. He died in office in 1934. The highest part of this preserve is 2,572--foot Borel Hill, located a couple miles south of our destination. This hill was named for Antoine Borel, a former owner of the property and a San Francisco banker.

The hike starts at the Skyline Boulevard/Rapley Ranch intersection, 16.8 miles south of Highway 92, or 4.4 miles south of Highway 84--La Honda Road. This intersection is also marked by a sign to the Yerba Buena Nursery, specializing in native California plants and ferns, and a sign to the Langley Hill Quarry. The Thomas Fogarty Winery is on the east side of Skyline a short distance north.

Proceed down Rapley Ranch Road a short distance to the first intersecting road on your left. The gate marked RR07 is usually closed, but you can walk around the gatepost, and then you will see the small metal Russian Ridge Preserve sign listing the rules of use. On your right is an old barn in an advanced state of decay and posted "Keep Out." Adjacent to the barn is a newly built storage area for equipment and old farm implements, presumably used on the property many years ago.

Continue past the barn a few hundred feet, and watch for a wooden sign marked "Ridge Trail" on your right. Take this trail, which quickly drops below road level and into a cool and refreshing grove of bay and oak trees. Passing through this shady ravine, the trail contours along the face of a grassy hill toward a line of electric transmission towers. In the near distance you will see a geodesic shaped house with a windmill beyond. Two homes on private property are at the top of the hill along the ridgeline.

The grass along this stretch is shoulder high, but it will soon dry out, turn brown, and flatten out. On the uphill side of the trail are clumps of bracken fern, one fern type that grows on open, dry slopes.

Watch for the trail to switchback. As you make the turn, notice a large rock off the trail: Near by is a monument to "Ted Norton's Rock." The rock was placed by Sam Richardson, artist, in memory of Edward Polka Norton, 1959-1984, with the inscription, "For me there is only traveling on paths that have heart." My wife commented that the rock has a heart-like shape when viewed from various angles.

A short distance farther is another art form: four platforms with alternating dark and light tile fronts with four vertical poles lined up to some distant point. It looks like an unfinished structure, but I have a hunch that this is the final product.

Continuing on, the trail crosses an asphalt road that serves private property downhill and then climbs up the hillside through stone outcroppings etched with lichen and crosses another old ranch road, disappearing along the ridgeline into an oak forest.

In just a few minutes you will see the wooden platform on your right--let your feast begin. Good views to the west and north will greet you, and you can see parts of Silicon Valley through the oak trees to the east, so sit back and enjoy the afternoon.

We suggest that you plan an early afternoon feast and beat the typical incoming fog and wind during the late afternoon.