After several days of rain and freezing temperatures, an impressive amount of snow had built up on the mountains around our house.  Because Marshall had to work and I was kind of bored (I didn’t want to clean the house) I decided to take a drive out to Del Valle with Sierra.  I figured we’d see how close we could get to the snow and I’d get in some relaxation by driving the Jetta and enjoying a super strong coffee and spinach and mushroom piadini from Starbucks.

After stopping at Starbucks I cranked up my newly acquired Crystal Castles album and headed out in the direction of Del Valle.  Once we got to Del Valle I decided to purchase a backpackers permit (good for a year) so I could get the map that shows distances to Rose Peak on the Ohlone Wilderness trail.  Apparently it is 10 miles from the Del Valle starting point.  I’m game, anyone else?

After entering the park I decided to head to the west end of the reservoir and park so I could eat my food and check out the map.  Sierra was happy to curl up in the passenger seat and with the heater turned up and my music playing I too melted into the seat and became lost in thought as I watched the rain come down.  After about 15 minutes I figured it was time to move on to the next thing but I wasn’t ready to go home yet so on a whim I decided to drive to Mt. Diablo and see if we could get to snow from there.

Upon entering the park I learned that dogs are actually allowed in, they just have to be on leash and can’t go on the trails.  Sweet!  So even though I hadn’t intended on doing any hiking and it was totally pouring, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to hike to the summit with Sierra.  Fortunately I had my tennis shoes and extra layers of clothes in my gym bag so I was reasonably dressed for the ascent.  Did I mention it was POURING!? 

Sierra looks to the summit with slight apprehension. It was a lot rainy and windier than makes for a good hike but we were going to go for it. =)

We're getting closer. Look there's a lot more snow here.

Almost there! This is the sign at the "Y" below the summit.

We did it!! And managed not to get blown off the side of the mountain. It was crazy windy!

So we did it.  It was super cold, super wet, and super windy but we made it despite all that.  I was so glad that I actually followed through on this impulse and did the hike.  It was totally worth it.  I think Sierra enjoyed herself too although I think she was starting to get really tired of all the pictures.  Look, she wouldn’t even look at the camera. 

Best buddies Sierra and me at the summit of Mt. Diablo. =)

For the rest of the pictures check out my Picasa album.  Until next time…

Man, “V” is on a roll with planning and leading totally kick-ass hikes.  =)  Last Saturday was an awesome hike to Mt. Diablo (3849′) and this Saturday we hit Sunol/Ohlone park and hiked to Rose Peak (3817′) and back for a total distance of 20.1 miles.

We started the hike at 9am with “V” true to tradition, laying out his carefully folded map and tracing the route we planned to take with his finger.  It’s always good to know where you’re going.  I forget shortly after being shown (stupid short-term memory) however it is exciting to know for the two seconds that it sticks. 

Hikers (21 of us in all) gathered around "V" as he traces our planned route on a map

I’ve hiked Sunol/Ohlone a number of times and am familiar with the backpackers trail junction however I always start in a  slightly different location so when we encountered a trail marker saying “Ohlone Wilderness Trail” which pointed up the hill, I followed even though it was a different path than I thought we would have taken.  “V” never leads us wrong, we sometimes just take detours to our final destination.

We had hiked about half a mile up a rather steep set of hills when “V” stopped us to check his map again.  Apparently we took the left fork when we should have taken the right fork and were headed in the opposite direction of Rose Peak.  Doh!  No worries though, at least in retracing our steps we got to go downhill which evenly warmed up our legs for the intense hike we had in front of us.  =)

After consulting the map we realized we needed to turn around so everyone packed up their maps and prepared to head back down.

Once we got on the right track it was pretty much power hiking for me until we got to the backpackers junction.  We then did a very steep climb for about 2 miles that took us past the backpackers campsites and past the last stop for water before you get to Rose Peak.  Along the way I saw some wildlife which was very exciting although I’m sorry to say it was dead.  I’m also guessing that whatever ate the upper half of it’s body wasn’t in too good of shape either considering that I believe newts are toxic.  Anywho it was cool to see the newt up close (sorry if anyone was grossed out by this picture).

I would have preferred this newt been whole and live however I'll take what I can get (didn't literally take it, just took a picture).

The rest of the hike consisted of hills and more hills.  There were very few “flat” spots so our legs got an incredible workout.  Oh wait, here’s one.  Oh but not really.  That was still downhill but it was a slight enough grade to where we could stretch out our legs a bit.  =)

One of the few "flat" spots. It was great to be able to stretch our legs on these parts.

Unfortunately I failed to take any pictures from Rose Peak.  I was super hungry and my smashed peanut butter and jelly sandwhich (yep, it still got smashed even without getting punched) distracted me from my usual picture taking flurry.  One of the guys on the hike took a group photo of everyone which I’m hoping he’ll share.  It’s always nice to remember the people you hike with.

Speaking of, it was cool to see and chat with my buddies Ilya, Yin and Jackie and get to know a couple other people better (Michael and Rajesh) who I had met on past hikes but hadn’t had a chance to get to know very well.  Michael is a professor at Stanford who has the longest commute I’ve ever heard of.  His wife and family all live in Isreal so he travels there regularly to see them.  Rajesh works for Sun Microsystems.  Rajesh is a swimmer but also smokes so when we ran up a hill to get to Rose Peak within the 6 minutes “V” estimated it would take to get there we were both equally out of breath.  Anyway two very cool people who were a lot of fun to chat with and I look forward to hiking with again in the future.  =)

After we finished our lunch it was pretty much a race to the finish line.  We needed to get back by 6pm since they apparently lock the gates in and out of the park at that time.  Fortunately since the majority of the hike back was downhill we made it back in about 4 hours instead of 5.  By 5:15 we were passing Little Yosemite so as long as we kept up the pace I knew we’d be ok.  I took a second to look back and saw an incredible view of the moon rising over a tree lined hill.  Even though I knew my camera couldn’t adequately capture the beauty of that scene, I still had to give it a try.  Michael and Ilya both attempted to help me figure out the manual setting on my camera and then gave up.  Michael politely suggested I RTFM when I get home. 

Taken from the Ohlone Trail as we neared our initial starting point (5:30pm).

All in all this trip was awesome.  I got to get out, breathe clean air, work out my legs and chat with some very cool people.  I also had some time to hike by myself and get lost in my own thoughts which is always nice.  So basically, it was exactly what I needed this weekend.  =)

I guess the next trip will be a hike in Big Sur so I’m going to start making plans for that now.  Hopefully we’ll be able to start doing backpacking trips as well.  I’ve missed the satisfaction of sleeping under the stars after a hard days hike.  And yes Ilya I would consider Irkutsk, “V” just has to actually get it on the calendar. 

Yay, so I was able to go on another awesome hike with “V”, my buddy Mike, and 24 other people from the Society of Outdoor Cardinals (formally Stanford Outing Club) this Saturday.  =)

The plan was to start at Mitchell Canyon Road ranger station and then hike to the summit for a total distance of around 14 miles.  Well originally it was supposed to be 16+ miles however “V” was helping to mentor a new trail leader and so the new guy chose to do the more direct route.  I like “V”s meandering hikes a lot better although this one was definitely still very enjoyable.

Beginning of the hike

We started the hike at 10am and although it was a bit chilly to start with, we warmed up quick.  I totally dug the great climbs.  Ah, me quads and hammies were loving the workout.  Thank you Jerry for all the lunge and squat workouts in bodypump. 

By 1:30 we had reached a point where we could see the summit but still had a ways to go.  See the stone building with a blue roof?  That’s the summit station.

View of the summit from Prospector's Trail

Once we got to the summit we took some time to go through the visitors center and enjoy the view.  Mike also asked one of the curators if they were familiar with the story of an anchor getting launched and lodged into the side of Mt. Diablo after a munitions explosion at Port Chicago in 1944.  They were not.  We were disappointed.  After the hike I searched for more information on that story and all I could come up with regarding the anchor was this.  Oh well, I’m still willing to believe the story.  =)

Mike, "V", and me at the summit observation deck.

From the observation deck we saw a sleek white glider that buzzed us several times (very impressive) and a few hang gliders who fortunately did not “find each other” even though they were doing loops within close proximity of each other.  We then had lunch and relaxed a bit before preparing for the trip back down.  Oh yeah, we also took a group photo and fortunately for me this nice cyclist woman offered to take the picture so I could be in it this time.  Yeah!  =)

Group photo from the parking lot at the summit

On the way back the sun was significantly less glary so I could see the mountains and scenery a lot better.  Off in the distance I noticed a large cave which sparked my curiosity as to what might be living there.  Mike and I probably spent 15-20 minutes hypothesizing on whether the cave was habitable and whether you could actually burn a fire inside the cave without succumbing to carbon monoxide poisoning when all of a sudden he interrupted to point out a deep cave just to the left of us on the trail.  I had to take the opportunity to climb in and check it out.  Very cool.  =)

Super cool cave... I like it. =)

We finished the hike almost perfectly on time (~6pm) just when we were starting to lose the light.  This was the first SOC organized hike I’ve done for 2009 and it set the tone for an awesome year.  “V” said he would be organizing a hike from Sunol/Ohlone to Mt. Rose and back next Saturday that should be about 21 miles.  I’m totally in!  Guess I’ll be doing that one on my own though since Marshall can think of about 12 better things to do on his days off (which he said includes root canals, I don’t think he really means that) and I want a happy husband. 

For the rest of the pictures check out my Picasa album.  Until next time, this is Jettagirl signing out.  =)