June started out with me not wanting to do anything, so I was a couch potato Saturday.

Sunday, I forced myself to hop on my bike and do the 20 mile Lamorinda Loop Trail.

Then after a couple hours rest at home, I decided to climb up to the Mulholland Open Space Reserve Ridge behind my apartment. I figured I had to get at least some hiking in this weekend.

Sometimes just getting started is the hardest part.

I ended up doing a long 6 mile loop that took me down past the Mulholland reservoir, over to Orinda Oaks Park, up to the top of the ridge (again), and then back along the ridge to my apartment.

Not a huge hike, but considering how I felt Saturday it was a amazing amount of activity after only one day.

The last Saturday in June I had planned to do a hike at Black Diamond Mines to take advantage of somewhat cooler temperatures.

When I woke up, my body had a different idea. 🙂

I eventually got enough motivation to take a bike ride in the late morning. Ended up doing the 20 mile Lamorinda Loop. Considering how unmotivated I was first thing that morning, doing this big of a bike ride was a victory for me.

The next day, I decided to do a hike after all. Black Diamond might be too hot to do after all, so I decided to head to Rancho Laguna Park near my home and do a long hike out to Rocky Ridge. I’ve wanted to do this from Moraga rather than from Las Trampais Regional Park, but never got past the Carr Ranch Loop portion of the trail.

The biggest problem with this hike is that it is 3 miles just to get to the trail junction. And unfortunately that morning it was all under cover of dense fog as far as I could see. A few glimpses of hills here and there, but not much else. I had hopped it would burn off after the first mile or so.

I climbed up to and then started the loop trail that ran up to the top of Rocky Ridge. Quite a good deal of climbing to get up there, so I made a point of taking a nice break earlier in the day than I normally would.

Then, as I neared the top of the ridge, BLUE SKY started peaking out of the clouds! In the end, Rocky Ridge was actually the dividing line between the fog/clouds pouring in from the Bay and the Las Trampais side of the ridge. Geography’s effects on weather patterns strikes again.

As I made my way across the ridge line, I took in the views, had a long break for lunch, and it seemed the clouds to the west were starting to recede. A little later than I had thought, but it was welcome in any case.

After than, I started to make my way down from the ridge, which was a particularly steep section of the trail. Finally, I took a right turn onto the lower horizontal part of the loop that would take me back to where I started.

At that point, I startled some birds that were ahead of me on the trail. At first I thought they were wild turkeys that you sometimes found around this area. But they took flight and were obviously some kind of hawk or vulture. They swooped around me for a bit before flying off.

The hike over was pretty relaxed and gave me some nice views now that the fog was mostly gone from the area. I finished the loop and headed back to where I started.

I paused at the trail that would take me around the Carr Ranch Loop. With the fog gone, it would have some nice views if I took that route back, but would also add about a mile and a half and maybe about 400 feet to climb. I had always wanted to try doing both of these loops in the same day, but never managed to get past the Carr Ranch Loop trail. Maybe starting with the Rocky Ridge Loop was better to keep me from cutting the whole hike short if given the chance.

Despite being a little tired, I decided to do the Carr Ranch Loop.

I had second thoughts when I had climbed about 200 feet up towards the ridge that this trail looped along. 🙂

Amazingly, I decided to continue and do both of the loops that day. My legs and feet were not happy with the decision. 🙂

Taking a long break at the top of the ridge, I thought about a fire road that would take me down to Morga near St Mary’s College. It might be shorter to civilization, but not sure it would save me much time and distance (unless I could get an Uber) to get back to my Jeep. Add that I wasn’t 100% it was fully open and didn’t end in private property with no trespassing signs blocking my way and I decided to just complete the loop as planned. May have to investigate that further soem other day.

Rejoining the trail that took you out to Rocky Ridge, I headed back to the start and managed to do the last 2 miles with only minor grumbling. I did run out of water just as I was nearing the end, so that was fortunate.

13.5 miles in over 10 and a half hours. A long day’s hike. It was almost the same amount of elevation climbed when I climb Mt Diablo, so a very long day indeed.

But my legs had to get used to hiking since next week I’ll be doing a long hike along the PCT starting at Tenaya Lake in Yosemite. 8-9 days of hauling 40 pounds on my back along the trail. That’ll be fun.

You can see my progress here: https://share.garmin.com/WanderingJim