March started with a 20 mile bike ride on the Lamorinda Loop Trail. Unfortunately, the next day I did not feel like doing anything, so was a couch potato all day.

I was not going to do the same the next weekend, so after a quick breakfast, I headed to Mt Diablo before I could grow roots into my couch. 🙂

I had focused on new trails during the first two months of the new year, but I felt the need to climb Mt Diablo. Well, the previous weekend, I lost that feeling, but this Saturday I made it to the bottom of the Summit Trail at the South Gate.

I was a little worried that the recent rain might have turned the trail into a mud quagmire, as it sometimes did. Fortunately, the trail was damp, but was mostly dry enough to walk along without getting muddy.

The skies were covered with clouds as I made my way up. I took a brief break at the Live Oaks Campground, then continued up. When I reached the Junction picnic area, I took a long break (as usual).

This was the 4 mile mark with a little over 2 miles to go. But it was also only the halfway mark of the elevation I had to climb to reach the summit. So, while I had successfully climbed 1,600 feet that morning, I had another 1,600 feet to go. And since it was half the distance, it was a steeper part of the trail.

Slowly, but surely I made my way to the Summit. Fortunately, the clouds parted along the climb and I had a great view as I ascended.

Reaching the top, I surveyed the area around me. Looked like San Francisco was fogged in so you couldn’t see that far, but the rest of the East Bay was visible as well as the snow-topped Sierra Nevada Mountains to the East.

With the pandemic, I didn’t spend a lot of time at the top before I started back down the way I came. I had thought about going down the Juniper Trail, but that would add some mileage, so I decided to just return along the same Summit Trail.

So, the day was almost 13 miles and a little over 8 hours. The time surprised me since i usually can do the Summit Trail in about 6 hours. I attribute that to a long Winter hibernation that has gotten me out of shape. Hopefully, the Spring brings new challenges to whip me into shape.

The last Saturday in March had me heading down to the South Bay to climb Mt Umunhum. At 3,486 feet, it’s one of the taller peaks in the Bay Area. I’d hiked to the top three times before, but it’s been a couple of years so I thought I’d do it again.

The first time I climbed it, I started at the Mt Baldy parking lot and went up the 3.5 mile Mt Umunhum Trail. A challenging hike, but only 1,100 feet or so to climb. The other two times, I started lower from the Woods Trailhead at 1,200 feet. It added another 1,100 feet to the climb and almost 5 miles to the mileage before it joined the Mt Umunhum Trail. This was a much more challenging and exhausting hike. And yet I was back for a third try.

Unlike Mt Diablo with all it’s various trails and ways to reach the summit, those are really the two primary ways to get to the summit of Mt Umunhum. The start of the Woods Trail is fairly level and only a little elevation to climb as I started my hike. Unfortunately, once I hit Barlow Road, that changed rapidly.

This old road that connected to the Mt Umunhum Trail was the steepest part of the day. I must have forgotten about it, since I swore it wasn’t this bad the first two times I hiked this road. Hiking amnesia: It’s what makes us come back for more. 🙂

As I reached the Mt Umunhum Trail, I was somewhat happy since that meant I had made it halfway up towards the summit. The remaining trail wasn’t as steep, but had a bunch of switchbacks that would take time to go up.

I took a brief break at the Guadalupe River Overlook. One of the features of this hike is you can see the old radar tower on the summit almost all the time as you climbed towards it. It did seem to take forever to get closer, though. 🙂

As I approached the east peak of the summit, I smiled and set my tired feet on the rocks there. I took in the view of the South Bay from there and could see as far as San Francisco, with Mt Tamalpais and Mt Diablo in the distance.

A little over 8 miles in 4 hours, with about 2,200 feet climbed. A thousand feet less to climb than at Mt Diablo, but longer. I took a well earned lunch break there and enjoyed the view.

Then I did a little exploring of the summit, walking past the radar tower, and skipping the overlook platform since there were too many people crowded onto it to keep socially distanced enough. The west peak was just a little high point a little to the west of the east peak. There was also a Native American prayer circle used by the original inhabitants of the Bay Area. Some local tribes still perform ceremonies using the circle. There was a group using it, but looked like a Christian group since they were reading from bibles.

After enjoying a half hour or so at the summit, I headed down the west side and then rejoined the trail I had climbed up.

I decided not to take the 2 mile round trip to Bald Mountain. It was more of a hill sticking out of the side of the ridge and didn’t really have any views that I couldn’t see at the summit or along the trail.

The trail was little easier in this direction, but not by much.

In fact, I was surprised at how many ups and down the Barlow Road took. Didn’t really feel like that much on the way up, but then after 11+ miles, everything seems harder and worse than it might have earlier in the day.

Reaching the Woods Trail, I at least had a mostly downward trail to ‘enjoy’ the last 3-4 miles hiking.

Reaching my Jeep, I was surprised that the descent had taken me about four and a quarter hours. A little bit more than the assent. Even being tired, I usually made much better time downward than that.

Almost 17 miles altogether in close to 9 hours if you count the time at the summit.

Regardless, it was an enjoyable, but long day. 🙂