After my semi-successful Ohlone Wilderness Trail hike the previous weekend, I thought I’d do the Las Trampais Ridge trail. Then I woke up Saturday morning and didn’t feel like it.

After breakfast and a little time relaxing, I decided to take a bike ride instead.

And I ended up doing the 20 mile Lamorinda Loop Trail on my bike. Not sure how my mind and body can reject a long hike, but then do a long bike ride instead. One problem was since I started late, the clothing I was wearing was a bit too warm by the time I reached the halfway point. I’ll probably have to transition to lighter morning bike clothes.

The next morning, I decided to try the hike I didn’t feel like doing the previous day. I made a point to have breakfast and get in my Jeep before I could chicken out.

I headed towards the Ringtail Cat Staging Area to start. While it was a long hike from there to the ridgeline where the ridge trail started, it was a mostly pleasant hike with some nice views along the way. A little steep in a couple of places, but one nice thing about the Las Trampas Ridge Trail is once you reached the ridge there wasn’t a lot of climbing and descending to do. Some, but mostly small rises and descents that didn’t piss me off too much. 🙂

After reaching the ridge line I had my first break at the high point, Las Trampais Peak. From there, I headed south along the ridge line. To the east was Mount Diablo and the string of hills surrounding it. To the west was Rocky Ridge which I had hiked many times before, but there was no direct connection from Las Trampas Ridge.

Vail Peak was the first point where I could head back towards where I started, but it would make the day a very short one and kind of made the effort to climb to the ridge pointless. So, I continued southward.

Just before I reached Sulfur Springs Trail, I took another long break and drank my only Diet Coke. I took the time to scan the map of the park to decide if I was going to use Sulfur Springs Trial to loop back to my starting point. That was my original thought when I started. It’s a nice loop.

The other option was to continue south and do the entire Las Trampais Ridge Trail. That would exit at the Remington Drive Trailhead. It was a long hike and I think I’d only done it twice before (once in both directions), but the mileage was almost the same as the loop. Of course it wasn’t a loop, so I’d either have to hope I was still very energetic at the end or just get an Uber to take me back to my Jeep (which is what I’d done on the previous two trips).

Then I noticed something amazing.

The map had a new section shown on the southern most end of the park. Previously, the Ridge Trail had dead ended at a closed land bank area. But now it seemed the trail continued through the land bank area, turned to the east and went through some private land (with an easement for the trail according to the map) and exited at Elworthy Staging Area. Which meant…

A NEW TRAIL TO EXPLORE AND ENJOY!

It was still early and it was actually only about a mile and a half longer than exiting at Remington Drive and would definitely require a Uber back to my Jeep, but I couldn’t resist the new trail.

It would have been nice to know before starting my hike (I’d have brought another Diet Coke, at the very least), but I did have enough water and snacks with me to do the longer hike.

So with a new goal for the day, I headed south again. While going south along the ridge was generally downhill, there were still some higher parts of the ridge to climb and then descend.

Since I had done the northern loops more often for this area, the hike was somewhat refreshing and had some nice 360 degree views of the surrounding area. The tree cover started to thin out as I went, so I was starting to worry about how hot it would get that afternoon.

Fortunately, it didn’t seem to be getting too hot as I neared the trail to Remington Drive. I still had the option of using that exit, but I still felt the need to explore the new area.

Finding a big tree along the trail, I took one last long break and renewed my desire to do the entire trail to the new exit point. The view of the trail from there didn’t show a lot of tree cover, so I made the most of this last bit of shade.

As I crossed through the former end of trail, I soaked in the area and the new sights. I was still testing my new Panasonic ZS-200, so a lot of extra pictures were taken along the way.

Reaching the southern part of the trail, It looked like there was a housing development ahead. But the trail veered towards the east at that point. This was also where the trail grew VERY steep.

I had a fleeting thought that (had I known about the new section before I started the hike) it might have been better to start at the southern end and exit from the north. But this steep section made me realize that would have have been a hard start to the day. Some other time, perhaps.

The private property area looked like it led to another new housing development, so I thought that the trail easement to open up this part of the trail might have been part of a deal to approve the housing. Such agreements were somewhat common on the Bay Area.

Reaching the Elworthy Staging Area a little after 2pm, I checked how far it would be to walk through Danville’s streets back to my Jeep and after seeing the 4.5 miles that separated me from my Jeep, I put in my request for my Uber. 🙂

10 miles in 7 hours. A long day, but mostly enjoyable (ny legs, knees, and feet deny that it was enjoyable). 🙂

I did have to chuckle at starting the weekend not wanting to do any hike, doing a big bike ride instead, and now doing a long hike the next day after all.

The next weekend, I decided to do a routine climb of Mt Diablo along the Summit Trail. Yeah, it’s a long and exhausting climb, but I’ve done it so often it has become routine for me.

There was low cloud cover surrounding the mountain, so while I started hike being able to see the area around me it wasn’t long before I climbed up into the cloud bank and had to imagine what the scenery looked like. I had done this hike often enough that I had no problems visualizing the view as I climbed.

Pretty much that was the story until about 3/4 of a mile from the summit when the sun started to burn through the clouds and spread a little heat on me. Once I reached Devils Elbow I got a fantastic view of a ‘sea of clouds’ covering everything below me. I don’t think I ever saw it so far up the mountain (but that may be because I try avoiding hiking on cloudy days like this).

After enjoying the view and testing my new camera some more, I finished the 1/2 mile hike and 400 foot climb to the summit of Mt Diablo. One nice thing about the cloudy weather is it kept some of the crowd away. I’m sure from below it looked like there would be nothing to see.

There was plenty to see, so I enjoyed the view and took a brief break before starting down. The cloud layer had gone down a little further, so I had some sunshine until just before hitting the water tank.

Finishing the hike, I was a little annoyed that it took me 8 hours. Since I had usually done it in 6 to 6.5 hours, it was a little concerning that it took me so long this day. Maybe I need to take fewer and shorter breaks.

The next weekend I actually felt like hiking first thing Saturday morning, but I didn’t have any place in particular I wanted to hike in. Looking at the map of the area, I decided I hadn’t hiked in Wildcat Canyon for a while so headed that way. There was a big loop that I had done a couple times before that went across Wildcat Ridge (AKA San Pablo Ridge) then you could descend though Tilden Park and hike through Wildcat Canyon.

I could have started at Inspiration Point that was much closer to my home, but that would mean leaving the climb from the canyon to the ridge till mid-day or even the end of the day.

It’s always easier to get the climbing portion done as early in the day as possible, so I drove to Alvarado Staging Area to start. I actually arrived just as they were opening the gate, so a bit of lucky timing there.

From there, it was a semi-gentle climb up past the foundation of an old sanatorium and up to the first high point along the trail. After enjoying the view I continued along the trail, which had some small dips and rises as I headed along the ridge towards an old NIKE missile base where I took a nice break. Again, mostly old foundations.

From there, the trail was paved and I headed towards Wildcat Peak, where I took a longer break and enjoyed the view. San Francisco and the coast was pretty obscured by haze or smog, but Mt Tam was visible above the haze.

From there, I could have descended down and saved a few miles off the bigger loop, but I decided to continue to Inspiration Point. The trail was pretty level and and easy couple of miles.

From there is was a downward stroll until I got near Wildcat Creek. From there, it was mostly a horizontal stroll down past Jewel Lake and down Wildcat Canyon.

14 miles in all little over 7 hours, but it was a nice day overall.