According to Midpeninsula Regional Open Space, Thornewood Preserve is named after San Franciscan Julian Thorne who bought this property in 1908. He later sold some of the acreage to August Shilling of the Shilling Spice Company, whom the lake is named after.
The entrance (and exit) is located along CA-84 and marked by a brick gate. It can be easily missed if you are driving quickly. The driveway is narrow and only fits one car, so you will have to be aware of cars coming from the opposite direction. The parking lot is small and fits only 12 cars. I am not sure how popular this hiking spot is as there were only three other cars parked when we visited on a July Monday evening.
There are two trails on this preserve: Bridle Trail and Schilling Lake Trail. Both are 0.75 miles each.
This information post is not the first one you encounter as you hike from the parking. We were on a time constraint so we only checked out the Schilling Lake Trail.
This is the only unobstructed view you see as you go downhill.
The foliage gets greener and the temperature is lower as you get closer to the lake.
We finally made it to Schilling Lake, though you can hardly tell this is a lake.
The only water we could see is the muddy stagnant puddle in between all the plants.
The trail beyond the lake is not maintained.
There are a lot of fallen trees on the unmaintained trail.
We found a cool teepee made of sticks!
This is an upward view of the redwood trees near the teepee.
Photos taken July 2020.