This was a challenging hike. My Garmin registered over 6,800′ of elevation gain to Maggie's Half Acre where we stayed overnight. This is the third time I've hiked out of Del Valle for various distances. The weather was perfect as we headed out on Friday morning. There are water stops at mile 2 (Stromer Springs) and around mile 4.5 (Williams Gulch). There is one other water stop at a campsite slightly off-trail but the name escapes me. Anyhow, Maggie's was a nice campsite with water (all water should be filtered in the Ohlone Wilderness) and a porta-potty. We saw vultures, a huge jackrabbit and cows. Some hikers behind us said they saw a mountain lion.

The hike was pretty with lots of wildflowers dotting the landscape. Poison Oak was abundant. We woke up Saturday morning, packed up and headed out to summit Rose Peak. It's beautiful up there! On the way down, we found a memorial contained in an ammo can. We let it be.

All in all, it was a fun hike and now I want to do the whole trail to Mission Peak!