Peak hike up Rose Peak

Beautiful fall hike; long and isolated trail from Sunol through the Ohlone Wilderness to the highest point in the Bay Area, and back. With the days getting short, we had to go as fast as possible out and back this trail. Total time of 9 hours.  A flat-ish hike through the first part of Sunol regional park took us past a dry Little Yosemite for the first 2 miles. We once again missed the turn to begin the true climb to the Ohlone Wilderness, but it wasn’t too far of a walk back once we hit the edge of the trail. It’s a consistent but gradual uphill from there through campgrounds and cow pies from mile 4-9. We saw absolutely no one, and not even a single cow, going up. It wasn’t until much later on the way down that we finally saw some cows near the trail then later close to the parking lot, we saw people. Trekking poles help out a lot here.