The Diablo made me do it. With today’s summit of Mt. Diablo I got my sixth peak in as many days for the Six Pack of Peaks. I set this as a challenging goal to start the year. Because I anticipated finishing after sundown, I parked in one the neighborhoods in Clayton about a half mile away from Mitchell Canyon trailhead. From there, picked up elevation quickly on the Eagle Peak Trail en route to Twin Peaks and Eagle Peak. Ended up taking Prospector Gap Road instead of following Bald Ridge Trail – and quickly discovered it is quite steep! (Hint: stay on Bald Ridge.) Easy to find the summit trail from Prospectors Gap where the trails converged. Saw an awesome view of Mt. Diablo’s pyramid shaped shadow stretching over the Central Valley. Way cool! Came around the corner near the summit and saw another impressive view of the setting sun with the summit looming ahead. Got numerous sunset pics from the summit and quickly headed down Juniper trail and onto the Mitchell Canyon Road as the sun continued to set. The last couple miles were by headlamp, though it is an easy trail to follow back to the trailhead (vs. the challenging and technical climb up to the summit).

Hopefully, this inspires a few people to reach outside their comfort zone — because after 82 miles and 19,291 feet of elevation gain in six days, it sure didn’t feel too comfortable at times. But, I got to see and do some cool things in a really short period of time. I had been training to pace a friend in an ultra who unfortunately did not get in to the race. So, wanted to do something to push myself hard. I’m looking forward to seeing the “adventures” of others who decide to do the things that they’ve been wanting to do for a while. For now, I’ll take a little break.