On a cold and overcast December 26, 2009, my hiking partner Lt. Cracker and I got together for our last hike of the decade. Forecasters had said that we’d have 40% cloud cover at 7 AM increasing to 90% as the day progressed, with rain in the afternoon or evening. We figured we had a small window of opportunity to hike today and decided to do the best we could with it.
We pulled to the end of Regency Gate in Clayton around 9:25 AM. Our aim was to cover a 5.9 mile loop to see the waterfalls of Mt. Diablo State Park. This is one of Lt. Cracker’s favorite hikes in the area and we had done this together some years ago. I too had not been here in a while, and so I was glad to do this loop.
I brought the camera along just in case we got lucky with pictures but expected to not use it at all given the weather forecast. Worst case, it would be more dead weight in my daypack, thereby increasing the workout component of the hike.
Now that winter is officially here, I have mentally reconciled myself to shorter hikes during this season. Further, I have refined my criteria for selecting locations for winter hikes in the Bay Area:
* Local hikes, no more than an hour’s drive from home
* Hikes between 4 and 8 miles long
* Hiking time between 2 and 4 hours only
Also, I would strive for the following:
* Start early between 8 and 9 AM
* Finish early between 11 AM and noon if possible
* Get back home by noon if possible and no later than 1 PM
With these thoughts in mind, I had been looking at some interesting long hikes in various guidebooks that I could break into shorter hikes to accommodate them within my winter schedule. I liked some hikes in the Las Trampas and San Leandro Reservoir areas and was looking forward to splitting them into two or three hikes and doing them over the Christmas holidays if possible.
As noted in my previous post, I had to keep my hike short because of the short hours of daylight and a sick wife at home. Also, the weather was not supposed to be the greatest but there was a brief window open, so at least I could go on a short hike.
My hike almost did not happen. Driving on Marsh Creek Road towards Vasco Road, I almost had a head-on collision with another car. For some reason, on this narrow, winding road, the driver of the car preferred to drive on my side of the road instead of his own. Luckily, he was awake, and thankfully, he corrected his mistake in time and we both survived a potential mess.
What was bad now was that sections of the drive were covered by dense fog. I feared that there might be no sun throughout the hike and consequently would not get any pictures at all. Then, as I approached Livermore, things seemed to clear up a bit. I allowed myself some hope that the sun might come out after all.
The forecasters had predicted otherwise, with increasing cloudiness as the morning progressed. But I’m an optimist, no matter what the weather forecasters say. They may have advanced scientific degrees, sophisticated satellite images, state-of-the-art computing horsepower, and avant-garde mathematical models, but none of them can beat hope.
Hiking in winter in the Bay Area can be challenging. The hours of available daylight are short and often there is heavy fog or rain. Sometimes the trails are muddy, waterlogged or impassable from recent rains.
All week long I had paid attention to the weather forecast and it appeared that this was going to be the better day for a hike this weekend. The weather would be good for a few hours only, so I had to do what I could with this limited opening. In addition, my wife was down with a cold so I did not want to spend too much time on the trail, away from home. My goal was to do a hike along the Bob Walker Ridge in Morgan Territory Preserve.
I left home under distressing conditions. There was heavy fog everywhere with visibility down to about 100 ft on sections of the road. The drive along Morgan Territory Preserve Road can be dangerous under these conditions since a section of it is a winding single-lane track. Traffic has to come to a near stop to let vehicles pass from the other side. Thankfully I did not encounter any traffic from the opposite side on that section.
The sun finally came out about two miles before I got to the trailhead. I had been climbing steadily and the trailhead elevation was just above 2,000 ft. Shortly after 8:15 AM I pulled into the parking lot. The temperature was 46 degrees and the sun was out. Yippee!
