With the ‘atmospheric river’ drenching California for most of the first 3 weeks of the year, I was looking forward to the first dry weekend of the year!! Since it had been a almost a YEAR since I had climbed Mt Diablo and because it was one of the hikes on my recovery plan from my left foot injury, I headed out early to the South Gate of Mt Diablo State Park to start up the Summit Trail. 6.5 miles to the summit and 3,200 feet to climb.
With the injury limiting what hikes I could do for the past 4 months and the torrential rain for most of the last month, this would be a challenge for my current condition and with me not knowing how my foot injury will react to a long 12+ mile climb up and down Mt Diablo. One benefit of doing this hike at Mt Diablo is the Summit Trail winds up the mountain and crosses over or near the road to the summit many times. If I had to abort, it would give me options.
The other concern is the recent rains may have made the trails a muddy mess, especially on the lower mountain. But with only a little rain on Tuesday, I believed the trails would be dry enough by the weekend.
I was mostly right. Some muddy parts, but most had easy dry ways to get across without going over my ankles in mud. I did decide NOT to use the Staircase Trail that cuts about a half mile off the climb to the summit. That trail is notoriously muddy and slippery (especially going UP) after rains, so I didn’t want to chance it.
I was a bit slow, but made it to the Summit without any pain in my left foot. I was also amazed that there were some small pockets of snow and ice still lingering in the areas that didn’t get any sunlight.
After going in the Summit building and stepping on the actual summit (they built the building around the actual summit), I got some more water, a Diet Coke and a Gatorade for the hike down.
I didn’t spend much time at the top since there had been a VERY cold wind blasting me as I climbed up the upper mountain. With few large trees and a lot of ridge lines on the upper mountain, that cold wind really made me doubt my sanity for doing these hikes.
Nothing new there. 🙂
Unfortunately, after descending for about a mile and a half, I started to feel some discomfort in the ball of my left foot. Not a sharp pain, but enough to take a couple ibuprofen and worry a little.
There was a little more discomfort after another mile of descent, but still not a sharp pain. I continued down being careful to avoid flexing my left foot and avoiding putting weight on the left foot when possible.
At the top of Staircase Trail I could see that it looked pretty dry, so I decided to go down it and it was uneventful. Due to the pain in my foot, I decided to loop around to Rock City along the road to same me having to go down some rough terrain on the Summit Trail. No mileage savings, but it was mostly paved level roads to minimize impact on my foot.
Back on the Summit Trail with about 1.5 miles left back to my Jeep, I stumbled on some uneven rocks and felt my first sharp pain in my left foot. I rested a bit, but then continued downward. It was not practical to turn around and go back to the road and the pain eventually decreased to a manageable discomfort. It helped that the last mile of the Summit Trail wasn’t that steep.
Back at my Jeep, I had saved about a half mile going down Staircase Trail. So, I ended up with 12.5 miles for the day. The left pain discomfort and pain was still worrying, but at least I completed the full climb up to the Summit and back down, even if I took some alternate routes.
It was nice to finally get a long hike in for this year.
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