We started in thick fog as we left the parking lot precisely at 10am. The trail snaked up the lower mountain near an almost dry creek and flanked by weedy grasslands. Before long the trail steepened considerably and despite the fog we were full on sweating. We found ourselves stopping frequently at turns to catch our breath and to take advantage of the benches. It wasn’t until we had passed a number of these that we finally broke through the fog into the sunshine and got to see the fog bank below us. Somehow, we were sweating less after leaving the fog, but continued to walk and stop as the steepness was almost unrelenting. The trail was good and even most of the way until we turned around to the back (east) side. There the trail dissected all over the place where many hikers had taken slightly different routes and the compacted gravel had largely washed away. The view from here was spectacular. We could see three of our previous peaks (Umunhum, Mount Diablo and Mount Tamalpais) in the distance. From here it wasn’t far to the top. We took a food break, admired the view, enjoyed the White-throated Swifts zipping by sometimes only a few yards from us, took some photos and headed down.