Mount Diablo – A Challenging 4-Peak Hike

The day started off with a beautiful sunrise in Livermore (found great spot to catch the sunrise – albeit in a ‘restricted area’). Then drove to Clayton, CA to begin a 16+ mile hike across 6 peaks in the Mount Diablo State Park. That’s when the day began to go downhill, first Google Maps takes me into a farmland, and announces’your destination is on the left’ a horse barn! Irritated I ask ”Seriously how stupid is this?” Siri, then retorts ‘I will not respond to that!’ Started the hike an hour and a half later than planned, and then the first mile was climbing in mud (walking in mud can be fun, but not when it sticks to your boots and weighs a pound, not so much!). After hiking 3 of the six peaks, got to Mt. Diablo, which was packed with people. So, after getting a picture or two, started hiking or sliding down ‘Devil/Death Slide trail’. They weren’t kidding about the ‘death’ – a mile of steep downhill slide. I slipped and fell a few times and cursed a lot! After that scary downhill slide, it was another 5-miles on a fire-road, downhill, and it was a race against the sunset and hiking in the darkness. Well, it was a beautiful sunset, it got pitch black. My flashlight ran out of batteries, had to use my iPhone flashlight for the last two-miles. Definitely a hike – I’ll remember as ‘challenging’.