After taking it easy the weekend before, I wanted to do a decent bike ride or big hike for the first weekend in March. Much to my body’s regret, I did both.

Since I hadn’t been riding my bike much due to very cold weather, I did a 20 mile bike ride along the Lamorinda Loop Trail. Basically, the ‘big’ bike ride I do from time to time when I manage to get enough motivation.

The next day, I should have been tired enough to forgo doing anything else that weekend, but managed to have breakfast and drive to Rancho Laguna Park in the outskirts of Moraga.

I chose this starting point after finding a trail listed going from Bolinger Canyon Road to near this park. I’ve hiked some trails in this area, but never knew this trail was there. To make it a loop, I decided to start by going down Rocky Ridge Trail and then going up Carr Ranch Loop Trail.

I’ve done various combinations of these trails before, often wondering where the fire trails that descended down towards St Mary’s College went to. This route would give me a chance to find out. Based on the map, one of the fire roads intersected the Old Moraga Ranch Trail.

The descent was pretty enjoyable, just having to dodge a few cattle and their droppings as I went down. Fortunately, there were no ‘No Trespassing’ signs on the way down. I wasn’t quite sure about these fire roads, hence why this is the first time I’ve chanced going down them. I’d hate to have to turn around and reclimb up tot he ridge if I dead-ended at private property.

Reaching the Old Moraga Ranch Trail, I decided to go down to Bolinger Canyon Road to reach the start of the trail so I could do the entire trail. It would add an extra mile to my day. I kind of regretted it once I reached the road and realized I had to re-climb the 400 feet I had just descended. I thought about walking home and using my bike to get back to my Jeep, but that’d just be as much work as hiking along the trial I had intended to (maybe).

So, I turned around and started climbing up the trail. I took a break at the fire road, hoping that was the last big climb of the day.

From there, the trail descended down through rolling hills and I scared some more cattle as I went. Unfortunately, I then had a fairly big climb to reach a high ridge overlooking the area. Not quite as high as the ridge the Carr Ranch Loop trail traversed, but still a challenge on a day of ups and downs.

But the views were fantastic. Even though I had hiked many of the hills around Moraga in the 14 months since I lived here, this trail gave me some new views on the town I now called home. St. Mary’s College also looked quite different from this angle than from what you could see from the road.

From there, it was a nice gentle descent that wound through the hills. Various clusters of roads and homes were tucked into the gaps between the hills, the trail mostly avoiding them. But it did make me think of Moraga as a larger town than I thought it was. The hills were hiding some of the urban sprawl.

Before reaching the end of the trail and my Jeep, I was a bit annoyed when I saw that when the trail straightened out, it also climbed up one last steep hill. Less than 200 feet, but at the end of the day it seemed like Mt Everest.

As my feet reached pavement and I could stop looking for land mines (cow pies), I finished the day at my Jeep.

A long weekend. I may be pretty sore on Monday, but I only have to work. 🙂

After my long weekend on Angel Island, I wanted to keep my feet busy and take advantage of a nice Saturday. I had thought about climbing Mt Olympia and North Peak, but decided on a more leisurely hike and headed to Tilden Regional Park. I had done some hikes in this park, but not in the southern part around Vollmer Peak.

So, I started out at about 1,000 feet along Quarry Trail and headed south. It was a simple hike and not too demanding hike until I hit the Seaview Trail and started climbing up towards Vollmer Peak.

I enjoyed the views along the way, before taking a side trail to reach the top of Vollmer Peak at 1,906 feet. There were a number of radio towers on this peak, so wasn’t the greatest place to enjoy the view.

From there, I returned to the Seaview Trail and continued north along the ridge line taking in some nice views along the way. As I neared my starting point, I could continue to the Nimitz Trail and possibly go as far as Wildcat Peak before circling back around. That may add 4-5 miles to my day and I decided the 6 mile I had already done was fine for that day. Besides, I had done the trails to and from Wildcat Peak many times before.