Hick's Road part 4: Sveadal

 Well trying to tackle the comments about Sveadal and how it relates to Hick's road I took a drive in that area.  There are a few roads in that area including, Croy, Little Uvas and Casa Loma.  Having my little daughter as a co pilot I didn't want to drive down them all but we did check out a couple.

Casa Loma is the first road we tried.  This normally has been a know dead end for my driving buddies and I, but there is a new part up there called Rancho Cañada del Oro Open Space Preserve.  This is something new to me so I figured it was work checking out.  It's one of the new open spaces parks.  This park seems to have a heavy focus on horses which are prevalent in the area.  We checked out the gate as it does seem to be a road that would lead up to the Almaden Air Force Station per the map, but it clearly indicates residents only.  Sort of lame as there really is not high roat access at this point. THe park itself is pretty much the normal open hill country that is prevalent in the area.

Having my daughter and my wife waiting I could only make a quick stop to the park, stopping for a few quick shots and a couple of seconds to grab brochure.

You can get a feel for the country with these photos.  The park is really set up for horses, with lots of water for them and what not.

The next stop on the my trip was going to be Croy road.  This is actually a pretty decent little drive for you folks.  Croy will take you about five miles to get from Uvas to the entrance to the park much of is is windy but not particularly bad.  What I really like is this road gets you a bit out of the normal sun soaked hills of the south bay and actually gets you into something that looks more like the coastal range.  You will find red wood
trees on this road.  You will see something that looks more like a legit forest. 

You are eventually going to run into Sveadal and you are going to have to go through.  Ignore the private road and members only as you can not get to the Uvas Canyon park if you do not go through Sveadal.  The Swedes of Sveadal seemed like normal folk.  Though I didn't forget how they did me wrong at Ikea.  They have a nice little meeting hall and some play areas for kids.  All in all i sort of am jealous.  I don't know why we Danes haven't got off our asses and put something together like this.

You can see the houses are pretty uniform red white and a bit of blue trim.  I am not sure if this is to represent unity or some expression of Janteloven.   As you can see there are Albino's here.  The sign is welcoming trolls which are a common pest to the Nordic cultures.   So summing this up i really have no idea how Sveadal got wrapped up in the Hick's urban legend.  Geographically this is not really anywhere near the Air Force Station nor hicks.  Its perhaps five miles as the crow flies which is pretty distant on country back roads.  I really didn't go into the park though i have in the past.  Its nice they camping there which is supposed to be fun.  I have usually stuck with Big Basin or Henry Cal but my buddy Mark really has enjoyed the place.  It feels like a state park ass opposed to something from the county.

Here are a couple of further posts Post 2 with lost of photos and  Post 3 dealing with UTC and Metcalf road. and Post 1 dealing with Hicks Road and Mount Umanhum.