Mt. Diablo Hike

The goal for the last weekend before the trip was to summit Mt. Diablo in Concord, CA, via the Mitchell Canyon Road trail. The elevation gain … about 3,300 ft, round trip about 15 miles.

The weather forecast said it would rain in the evening. I figured Madhavi and I should have enough time to get back before the rain set in…

On the way to the staging area on Mitchell Canyon Road… hmm, strange….there was a mining operation right next to residential houses. There were few cars parked at the lot. I can see why….the weather didn’t look too good.

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First mile, saw some beautiful fall color.
Third mile, getting very misty. The mist covered the mountain range. I felt like I was walking on clouds.

Five miles into the hike, rain started pouring. We did not wear our rain pants (well, I didn’t even have one) or waterproof gloves. I couldn’t feel my hands. There was low visibility. Fog was rolling in. We decided that the wise thing to do was to turn back (we didn’t have a flash light either).

On the way back, I saw one mountain biker riding up the road. Wow… hope he made it to the summit.

About a mile from the parking lot, I saw three bird watchers with their binoculars out. Hmm, that’s a sport I don’t see the fun in.

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At 2:30pm, we got back to the car and clean up our boots… somewhat. I picked up a pound of mud on the trek back.

We sat in the car for a few minutes with the heater on full blast. My hands were so numb that I couldn’t even use the key to start the engine. A lesson learned the hard way… always hike prepared!!!

We found a Starbucks at the town of Clayton (opposite Clayton Valley Village … although there’s a Pete’s Coffee opening up soon at the Village). That hot cup of mocha was heavenly…

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