The mini-heat wave at the end of March abated somewhat for the first Saturday in April, so it wouldn’t be so hot. I decided to go to Mt Diablo and try climbing Mt Olympia and North Peak from Marsh Creek Road. It was a hard hike, but wouldn’t be too bad if it wasn’t that hot.
I could also pop over to the Main Summit if I felt like it. I also could make it a loop by going down the use trail on the east side of North Peak. So, I had a lot of options once I was on the trail based on how I felt.
Since there are some nice spots along the east ridge trail as you climbed up to Mt Olympia where you could see the sunrise behind the hills to the East, I got an early start. Although, not as early as I should have.
I had brought my headlamp along since I thought I would be starting in darkness, but I was slow in having breakfast and getting out the door. So, when I got to the trailhead, there was enough pre-dawn light that I could see where I was going mostly. I made good time hiking from the road to the start of the steep climb, but was afraid I was going to miss the sunrise as I climbed through the bushes and trees.
As luck would have it, I made it to the first clearing along the hillside where you had a wide open view of the eastern hills and sky.
With maybe two minutes to spare, the sun rose behind the hills and I soaked in the view. It might have been a little nicer if I had gotten higher, but I was thankful to had seen it at all.
Unfortunately, the climb up to the peak of Mt Olympia is a fairly step one, so it was slow going and took me almost two and half hours to reach the peak. I surveyed my surroundings before taking a much needed rest.
Still feeling good, I took the short hike over to the North Peak Trail. From there, I could have gone directly over to the Main Summit and then came back to do North Peak and then descend down the east side. But I had learned the hard way that postponing doing something on the trail with the thought that “I can do that later” sometimes came back to bite me as I didn’t have the energy to do it or changed plans.
So, I decided to score the North Peak right away. It wasn’t far (about a half mile round trip), but it did have one of the steepest trails in the park. It was more a collection of rocks, dirt, and broken concrete. I took it slowly, as always, and celebrated by standing on the peak for a real quick moment. Unfortunately, this peak is covered by a radio and microwave tower, so It’s best to take your pictures and get away before your brain cooks.
From there it was down to the Old Prospectors Gap Road junction and then the climb to the main summit. As always, the 600 foot descent and then 900 foot re-climb took a lot out of me, so I took a nice lunch break at Devil’s Pulpit along the way.
As I got to the summit, I enjoyed the view trying to avoid the people who think the pandemic is over. I grabbed a couple Diet Cokes for the hike back and an ice cream bar from the Visitor Center to celebrate my reaching the tops of the 3 Peaks of Mt Diablo. I ate the ice cream and then started back down to the junction.
At the junction, I had a decision to make. I could go up and over to Mt Olympia the way I came and save a little extra climbing and mileage. I could also go back up to North Peak and down the east side as I had originally planned.
I’m not sure when the thought came to me, but I did have a third option from that point: I could go across Bald Ridge and then climb up to Eagle Peak and Twin Peaks.
That was the fabled “5 Peaks of Mt Diablo”. I’d done all five peaks in one day hike three times before (and failed a couple times more), but I had always planned on doing it from the start. When I checked the mileage and the amount of upward climbing for all three options from where I was, I was a little surprised at how similar all of the options were. The Eagle Peak route was actually a little less elevation to climb compared to the other two, but about a half mile longer.
Remarkably, I choose to do the full 5 peaks that day. It had been a few years since I did all five in a single day hike and with the option available I decided to go for it. My decision to take care of going up to the North Peak was a good choice after all.
Since I didn’t plan on doing it from the start, starting from Marsh Creek Road was not the best starting point. To do a loop back to my Jeep would require a lot of re-climbing to get to the Mt Olympia Trail and follow that along the north side of Mt Olympia.
Not wanting to do that, I’d have to cheat and take a Uber from Regency Gate. So, it wouldn’t be a complete loop, but still a nice challenge and a chance to make my body suffer some more. 🙂
So, I headed north along Bald Ridge, grumbling a little at the small dips in the trail that caused me to add to my elevation climbed that day. Reaching Meridian Ridge, I cursed my decision to do the 5 peaks as I looked along the trail I would have to follow to get to Eagle Peak. Not only did it have about a 300 foot climb in it, it also dipped down a bit before that re-climb. I knew it was coming, but seeing it at the end of an already long day was another thing altogether.
Fortunately, the climb up wasn’t steep, so I made it up quickly to enjoy the view. I had the last Diet Coke, realizing I had bought the second one because I had thought I may extend this hike to the 5 peaks before I reached the main summit. My mind was subconsciously trying to destroy my body. 🙂
I celebrated since I knew that it was almost all downhill from that point. Twin Peaks was down along the ridge from Eagle Peak, so was a quick score at the end of a day along this ridge.
The only bad thing was the descent to the north from Eagle Peak was a very rough and steep trail with lots of loose stones and dirt making it real easy to slip and fall. Either the condition of the trail has improved or I’m getting better at navigating rough trails, because I didn’t find it that hard to reach Twin Peaks.
Goal! (not that I had planned on this goal at the start of the day)
Then it was a pretty basic descent down the side of the mountain to Regency Gate. I had briefly thought about going to Michel Canyon Staging Area, since it would save me a whole third of a mile. It wouldn’t make much difference since I was cheating with a Uber ride back to my Jeep, but decided that going out Regency Gate at least gave me the option to walk back to my Jeep along the road if I couldn’t get a Uber or Lyft.
Once at Regency Gate I did have a little trouble getting a ride, but did get one that saved me 3 more miles of walking.
13 miles altogether, but over 11 hours! Shorter than my Mt Umunhum the previous weekend, but the elevation gained and lost was the real challenge when doing the 5 peaks of Mt Diablo.
So a longer day than I had planned, but a good rewarding day hike. My body would feel it the next day, of course. 🙂
The next weekend I didn’t really have a hike firmly in mind when I went to sleep Friday or woke up Saturday. I twas thinking about a medium-ish loop trail near the San Leandro Reservoir or doing the long Briones Crest Trail loop. The former would be new, but not much of a hike. The later I’ve done any times before, but was always a nice challenging day.
After threatening to grow roots into my couch, I decided to go for the Briones Regional Park hike and drove to the Bear Creak Stating Area.
Instead of going directly up the Briones Ridge Trail, I started my hike by going alogn the Bear Creek Trail. Same distance, but it avoided starting on a steep climb first thing int he morning. The Bear Creek Trail was a gently slope upwards until it turned and the last bit climbed steeply up to join the Briones Ridge Trail. Most challenging part was avoiding stepping in the cow pies.
From there, it was a nice undulating hike along the ridge with views all around the area. Crossing over the Old Briones Road (which was one of the shortcuts back to my Jeep if I decided to abort early), I continued onward to Get tot he top of Briones Peak. Just a little high hill near the trail, but was a nice place to catch your breath.
From there, I actually left the Ridge Trial and took the Table Top Trail around the eastern edge of the ridge since it had a better view of Mt Diablo and the hills to the east.
Rejoining the Briones Ridge Trail, I passed up the last shortcuts back to my Jeep and headed towards Russel Peak. After a lunch break there, I continued along the Russel Peak Trail which had nice views of Lafayette Ridge, Mt Diablo and the sourounding hills to the south.
From there, I had to walk among Hidden Valley Road before finishing the loop at my Jeep. A little over 8 miles in 5 hours mad eit a decent hike for the weekend.
Remarkably, I did the 20 mile Lamorinda Loop Trial the next morning on my bike. Busy weekend.
After a bad spill on my bike during the week, I decided to do the simpler King Canyon Loop that I had as an option the previous weekend.
It’s near my home, so I almost could have biked to the trailhead. Besides a broken mirror my bike wasn’t damaged and I had taken a short bike ride a couple days after my accident, but I decided I’d just drive to the trailhead this time.
I stared with the short Riche Loop Trail before hitting the Rocky Ridge Trail. It was a easy hike until I reached the King Canyon Loop Trail, which wasn’t that bad either. I got glimpses of the San Leandro Reservoir as the trail snaked along the hillside. There were some descents and re-climbs all along this part of the trail, but fortunately not anything severe.
I reached the southwestern corner of the trail and took a nice early lunch break and enjoyed the view of the reservoir. It wasn’t a huge reservoir, being mostly made up of skinny water channels that must have once been steep canyon walls framing a small stream below.
Rounding the bend, the trail straightened out nicely and I started back towards the starting point. Unfortunately, after the trail turned north, I began a very steep climb to the high point of the trail which was just a little under the 1,000 foot mark. Up until then, I was between 500 and 600 feet and the steep climb was a bit annoying, but nothing I couldn’t handle.
Descending a bit, I hit the junction with a trail that would go down and rejoin the trail I had started from. I decided to do the Rimer Creek Trail to get a little different view on the way back. It was nice, but mostly wound it’s way along a fence separating the trail from people’s backyards.
So a ‘short’ 7.5 miles in 4 hours. A nice day’s hike. Maybe I should have ridden my bike to the trailhead after all.
The next weekend had a small storm coming through the Bay Area, so Sunday was likely to be raining, so I focused on Saturday. The weather report said it would be cloudy all day, so I decided to do a local hike.
Starting at Rancho Laguna Park in Moraga, I would take Rocky Ridge Trail and do the Rocky Ridge Loop. It was a long two and a half mile hike just to get to the loop, but I had all day.
I was only a mile into the hike when I started having second thoughts. Not a good sign.
But I continued anyway and reach the northern junction with the Carr Ranch Loop Trail. I had done that loop trail back in January as one of my ‘new year – new trails’ mindset. It was VERY muddy back then.
Some turkeys blocked the trail to Rocky Ridge, so I had to do the Carr Ranch Loop. 🙂 But seriously, I just decided the closer loop was enough for the day and headed up to the ridge the Carr Ranch Loop Trail traversed.
It was a much nicer hike without the mud to trudge through. Even the skies started to show some blue gaps through the clouds as the day went on, so wasn’t gloomy all day.
After taking a lunch break overlooking Moraga, I decided to go down a fire road that seemed like it would get me back to the trailhead a little more directly.
Unfortunately, it dead-ended at a protected watershed fence and I had to turn back. It had some nice views along the way, so wasn’t a complete loss. Continuing down the loop trail, it rejoined the Rocky Ridge Trail and I retraced my steps back to the trailhead.
A little over 9 miles in 6 hours. A decent hike. I did end up taking a LOT of pictures since I was testing out a new camera. But a nice day’s hike overall.
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