Mount Diablo
Directions: From 680, take Ygnacio Valley Road east. Drive to Clayton Road and turn right. Go to Mitchell Canyon Road and turn right. Drive to the the end of the road and park.
Parking Fee: $3.00
Mitchell Canyon HQ and Parking area
Trail sign at start of hike
Heading out!
It was a nice day for a hike
Heading up!
Pile up on the trail
Heading up still
Looking back
View from the trail
That is the snow capped Sierras in the distance!
Giving up hard won elevation ...
... That we had to hike back up again. Arrggghhh!
Loosing elevation.
Loosing more elevation.
Heading up the Meridian Ridge Road
looks like Bishop Ranch
Las Trampas! I’ve hiked by that radio tower over there
Trees along the trail
We made it up to some signs of civilization
Climbing up the Juniper Trail
Looking out from the Mountain
Another view out
Hang glider!
The summit!
Image94.jpg
I made it! I can’t believe I climbed the whole thing!
View out from the summit
Plaque in the building on the summit
Looking east
Last picture I took on the way down
On March 10, 2007, I hiked Mount Diablo with the Stanford Hiking Club.
The route: Mitchell Rock Trail -> Eagle Peak Trail -> Meridian Ridge Road
-> Deer Flat Road -> Juniper Trail -> Summit -> North Peak Trail ->
Bald Ridge Trail -> Back Creek Trail -> Bruce Lee Trail
GPS Stats
Distance hiked: 14.94 miles
Total ascent: 5030 ft
Trailhead Elevation: 586 ft
Max Elevation: 3855 ft
Moving time: 7 hrs 20 min
Moving Average: 2.0 mph
Overall average: 1.5 mph
Time stopped: 2 hrs 10 min
Personal stats
Dates Hiked:
10-March-2007
Start time: about 10 AM
Weather: perfect!
Water consumed: 3.5 liters
plus 600 ml Gatorade
Finish time: about 7:30 PM
Total time: 9 hrs 30 min
Beauty: Green hills, flowing streams, wildflowers, great views!
Wildlife seen: Only birds
Difficulty: This was the most strenuous hike for me yet!
National Geographic TOPO! software website:
Call me crazy again, call me irresponsible to boot, but when I saw that the Stanford Outing Club was planning a hike up to the Summit of Mount Diablo I decided to join in. I had never hiked on or around Mount Diablo and I had it in my sights as a park I wanted to do but didn’t want to hike alone and this looked like my opportunity.
So when Saturday, March 10 came around, I got up dark and early at 5:20 AM, made my preparations and got out of the house and on the road by about 8:00 AM. It was about a 90 minute drive from my home in San Jose and I made it to the Mitchell Canyon entrance by around 9:30 AM. I was among the first to arrive but the other hikers, 20 of us in all, filtered in shortly behind me.
This hike was led again by “V” and he soon got us organized and headed up the hill. The thing I quickly found out about Mount Diablo, is that you start hiking up pretty quickly and you keep going up and up and up and steeper up. And before you know it, you are looking down on the area from above and you still have a lot of climbing to do, and not surprisingly, this pile of dirt quickly wore me out. Of the 20 of us, I again was the slowest one up the hill.
We started hiking up at 10 AM and because of my difficulty the last of us (me) made the summit at 4:00 PM. And as hard as it was, the effort was worth it. The views up there were fabulous. There was some smog in the air but it mostly clear and you could easily see the snow capped Sierras.
But given the late summit, we quickly ate our (late) lunches and after 15 minutes, headed down. After all that climbing, the nice thing about heading down was that it was down. Yes, there were some local spots on the trail where it climbed up and given how beat I was, I struggled on them. But for the rest of the way, down was down and after trailing the pack all day long, now I was able to keep up with them. In fact a few people had some difficulty with the steeper parts of the descent and had to take it slower and I eventually found myself within the front 4 or 5 people heading down.
Eventually we came to a junction as the sun was going down where we all stopped and waited as everyone else caught up. Some people were running though and went ahead and took off, confident they could find the parking lot and they did.
Meanwhile it got ever darker as we waited and so I got out my headlamp and put it on. As it turned out, only about a third of us had lights or lamps of any sort and so I took the lead of about a half dozen of us and headed off to the lot while the slower hikers struggling with foot or knee pain, followed further behind.
This was the first time I had ever ended up hiking in the dark and the first opportunity to find out how well my headlamp worked. I was surprised at how fast its light was eaten up in that dark. It did provide enough light for me to find my way and the people behind me managed OK but I sure wished that it was brighter.
Otherwise, we all made it back to the parking lot and our cars by about 7:30 PM in full darkness but in great spirits. We had a great group of people and “V” did a great job of leading us on this hike and all in all, this was a great one and I had a feeling of accomplishment in completing it.
But it wasn’t without pain and for the next 3 or 4 days afterwards I really suffered with pain. Leg pain, foot pain, arm pain, everywhere you can have pain. I ached all over. Without a doubt, this was my most intense hike yet! Now let’s see some pictures ...
