After a lackluster January as far as hikes went, I wanted to do another big hike on the first Saturday of February. I decided to do the same hike at Black Diamond Mines Regional Park that I cut short in December due to feeling ill that day.

This area gets oppressively hot in the summer, so is a good choice to hike in the winter when the temperature is usually quite pleasant. I started by heading down the Stewartville Trail as far as I reached the last time, the Prospect Tunnel. I walked down the length of the dead end tunnel, mostly just because it was there.

From there, I had a couple routes I could take and I decided to head out to Star Mine and then around to Oil Canyon. I had done that loop once before, but it’s been a few years.

The Star Mine was mostly just a set of bars over a deep hole, so wasn’t much to look at. Continuing around the southeast corner of the park, I reached the Lower Oil Canyon Trail and followed that around through Oil Canyon. I then climbed up towards Upper Oil Canyon until I reached a great overlook with a view of this part of the park and took a lunch break.

Then, I decided to tackle a trail that I hadn’t been on before and continued west on the Upper Oil Canyon Trail. It had some nice views as it ran along a ridge line before descending down to a pasture where the trail rejoined the Stewartville Trail.

I could loop back around to return to my Jeep, but decided to climb up to the Ridge Trail to take a more scenic return to my Jeep. A little more of a climb, but well worth it to enjoy the view as I finished the 11 mile hike.

A little better start to February than January.

The Bay Area was experiencing a heat wave in the middle of Winter. Mid to high 70s may not sound hot, but when you typically get 40s to low 50s most days in February, this is notable.

I had been thinking of going to the Pacific Ocean and climbing Mt Tamalpais from Stinson Beach. The warm weather should prevent coastal fog from forming, so may be a great time to head to the coast.

But it’s over an hour’s drive to get there and I just wasn’t motivated enough Saturday morning to have an quick breakfast and get in my Jeep before 7am.

Fortunately, I did still have the desire to do a long hike. I decided to go to the nearby Briones Regional Park that has some nice trails. I parked my Jeep and then headed up the Briones Crest Trail. The Crest Trail was a great trail that circled the park almost entirely and had great views.

The only problem was the trail climbed steeply from the parking lot and you had to climb 500 feet within the first mile. After that, the trail did have some ups and downs as it wound along the crest of the hills in the park. But that first climb was always a little daunting first thing in the morning. Sometime I have to try going counter clockwise on this trail and go down that steep section instead of up it. 🙂

I saw Mt Tamalpais to the west and the skies were very hazy. Not with clouds or fog, but smog. 🙁 The hot weather tends the trap pollution in the area surrounding the Bay. A quick check of Mt Tam webcams showed it was pretty clear along the coast. Ah well. It will always be there for my next trip to the coast.

One thing about the Briones Crest Trail is there are many trails that you can use to take a shortcut back to the Bear Creek Staging area I usually started from. That can be a little tempting at times, but I managed to resist the urge this day.

I was a little surprised at how much traffic I was encountering as I reached the end of the Crest Trail (usually this part of the trail was pretty quiet), but I guess the warm weather had drawn a lot of people out of their homes for the weekend.

I climbed up to the top of Russell Peak and took a lunch break to rest my tired feet. More great views from there.

I could double back a bit to finish the day by going down the Seaborg Trail, but I continued down the Russell Trail and finished with a big loop that took me down the Upper Happy Valley Road. It’s a little further, but I’ve always thought of this route as the ‘full circle’ of Briones Regional Park, even if the road isn’t part of the park.

I’m happy that I seemed to have gotten my will to hike back for these past 3 weekends. January had nice weather, but I had trouble getting off my couch until the last Sunday of the month.

While the Bay Area was a little chillier than the previous weekend, the next Saturday was looking like nice, clear weather. So, I planned to go to the Coast and Climb Mt Tamalpias from Stinson Beach. The first hurdle was getting up, eating breakfast, and driving to the coast early enough to do this long hike. I managed to do it, but still was probably a bit later than ideal.

Instead of starting by climbing up the Matt Davis Trail from Stinson Beach, I decided to go counter clockwise and start by hiking along the Dipsea trail and then climbing up the Steep Ravine Trail. One benefit it had over the Matt Davis Trail was not a lot of switchbacks. But true to it’s name, it was pretty steep.

After reaching Pantoll, I made my way up the Old Stage Road to West Point Inn for a very welcome rest. From there, it was a straight forward climb up the Old Railroad Grade Road to reach the summit parking area. A short hike up from there, and I enjoyed the views from the top of the East Peak while having a snack and a Diet Coke.

While it wasn’t as warm as it was the previous weekend, the mid-day sun was warm enough to go down to a t-shirt for the rest of the day. That was mostly due to lack of cloud cover putting a lot of the hike down the mountain in direct sunlight.

I decided to take the Fern Creek Trail down to have a little variety. From there, I thought about going down the ridge to the start of the Matt Davis trail and following that entire trail down to Stinson Beach. But that would mean having to re-climb about 300 feet and add over a mile to the total mileage that day.

I decided to turn right and go back to West Point Inn and retrace my steps to Pantoll. While I could just retrace my steps and go down the Steep Ravine Trail, I decided to go down the Matt Davis trail from that point. A little further, but it would let me go directly to the beach to celebrate my “Ocean to East Peak Climb”.

On the way down, I realized that I had forgotten the switchbacks along the bottom of this trail as it wound down the side of the mountain. Maybe that’s why I usually prefer going up this trail in the morning than down it in the afternoon. 🙂

It was past 5pm before I reached the bottom. I decided to get some dinner at a cafe near the beach and then enjoy the Sun set over the Pacific Ocean. A very nice way to end this very long day. Almost 16 miles in 10 hours. Very long indeed.

After 4 weekends of pretty decently long hikes, I ended the month on a low note. I did do a 10 mile bike ride, but only ended up doing a short 5 mile hike locally. Better than nothing.