If you want a short walk in the woods, Thornewood is a good pick. The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District calls the 167-acre preserve in the hills above Woodside ideal for a quick morning or afternoon getaway. It has easy hiking and horseback trails.
The trails
- Schilling Lake Trail: 0.75 mile under bigleaf maples and mossy oaks, ending at the lake in the shade of redwoods
- Bridle Trail: 0.75 mile through second-growth Douglas fir and redwood into oak and madrone forest. Wikipedia says it leads on to Old La Honda Road
Wikipedia says the Schilling Lake Trail offers brief views of the South Bay, including Stanford's Hoover Tower. The preserve is dog-friendly, and Midpen asks that dogs stay leashed and at your side near the lake.
A lake on its way to becoming a forest
Schilling Lake has been a good place to watch migrating waterfowl. Midpen is letting it fill in naturally. As plant material and sediment build up, it will turn into a wet meadow and eventually a forest.
Two estates
Midpen says the preserve is named for Edna and Julian Thorne, who bought the property in 1908 and built a summer home that still stands. The land also held part of a large estate owned by August Schilling of the Schilling spice company. Four interpretive panels on the Rock of Ages Trail point out what's left of it. According to Wikipedia, Edna Thorne left the land to the Sierra Club Foundation when she died in 1970, on the condition that it remain a nature preserve. The foundation gave it to Midpen in 1978.