TL;DR
A real leg burning loop full of 360 views of the East Bay and 4060ft of elevation gain across 13.8 miles. The 4 summits are Mt Olympia, North Peak, Mt Diablo Summit, and Eagle Peak. There aren’t any water sources until you get to the main summit. Wear good shoes as most of the trail is steep and full of loose dirt and gravel. This trail does not have much shade so pay attention to the temperature and stay hydrated.
Thoughts
I was a bit confused about this hike. I had always heard it called the 5 peaks of Mt Diablo. However, around mile 13 I still hadn’t seen the 5th peak marker so its still unresolved whether there is a 5th peak or not. I read some blogs and hike trackers that said the 5th peak is unmarked but otherwise couldn’t figure it out. But apparently 4 summits is also a thing and definitely what I did.
I set out to do the 4 summits sort of on a whim. Some other plans fell through and D had work, so I decided to take advantage of an unusually cool August Sunday and go solo hiking.
I started the hike at 7:30am, the air was brisk so it was easy to set a quick pace. This might be the earliest I’ve ever been at Mt Diablo. It was so pleasant to see the morning sunlight filter through the oak trees. This hike starts on the same trail as the
Mt Olympia/North Peak hike I did back in March of this year. I figured I would go up to Mt Olympia and North Peak, the first two summits, and see how I felt. While the trail was steep, I didn’t feel as tired doing it. Could my sporadic training be paying off? I got up to Mt Olympia feeling pretty fresh. It was starting to warm up, so I only stopped long enough to chug some gatorade and snap a photo from the peak that looks out toward the Brentwood-Discovery Bay area.
Next stop was North Peak about a mile upward. The last 200 feet or so is up a 50 degree mangly paved road. If that’s supposed to be a service road, you must need some sort of off-road jeep to get up it. North Peak
is a bit underwhelming. The summit post is right in front of a big radar tower. There are some views looking out toward Livermore but the haze from the Big Sur fire hung over everything and made the horizon dull. Normally you can spot Mission Peak and Mt Rose and see the city of Livermore. But not so much that day. I quickly took my summit photo then headed back down to the trail intersection to go to the main peak, all the while fearing for my ankles as I made my way down the ancient asphalt scree. From here on out I was in new territory. At the next junction is where we had begun our descent when we did the North Peak loop last time. I paused in the shade before I started the journey up the sun baked trail to the Mt Diablo summit. I don’t often think of Mt Diablo as being volcanic. A lot of the rocks are sandstone like in Rock City and in the climbing areas down lower. But along this path were dark, smooth, jagged rocks that looked more like they belonged on a beach in Hawaii rather then in a rock fall on the side of Mt Diablo.
I started to really drag once I got close to the summit parking lot. Maybe it was from seeing all the people that drove up to the top. Or the ugliness of seeing a parking lot after 8 miles of being alone with the trees. Or maybe it w
as because it was noon and 90 degrees outside. All possibilities. I made it to the summit and went into the Summit Museum to check out the view and sit in some shade. On good days you can see the Sierras from the top of Mt Diablo. On smoggy days, you’ll be lucky if you can make out Mt Tam. I could just barely make out Mt Tam. It was really one of those hazy summer days with a marine layer along the coast. Its a bit disappointing to not have the main summit be the apex of the hike. I still had one more peak to hit as well as get back down to my car. Going downhill is never my favorite and, for whatever reason, I always slip a lot when hiking on Mt Diablo. I even had different hiking boots with great grip and I still almost blew out my knees several times. I meandered down as fast as I dared. I internally debated the catch 22 of solo hiking. Its relaxing to hike by yourself and I might have even had a quicker pace just because I didn’t have to try and keep up nor have anyone telling me to. However, after slipping for the umpteenth time I started to think how incredibly easy it would be to royally mess up a knee or an ankle. And then what? I’m halfway up a mountain (a short one albiet). I wonder if people who always hike alone think about this kind of stuff. Do they consider that fine line they walk on between freedom and safety? Do they thank God when their body reacts quick enough to catch themselves? And so my mind pondered this and many other things.
By the time I hit Eagle Peak I was over this hike. I’m
finding more and more that a lot of what I enjoy about hiking is the exploration aspect. Once that’s gone, I almost find it sort of a chore and just want to be at the destination. Terrible right? I’m a trail snob. Being at Eagle Peak could be summed up as ‘meh’ since I had just come down from the main summit. All it meant was that I had hit all 4 and was almost back down. I was on the last straightaway when I found myself in a very open grass field. Whenever I see long dry grass I think of Russell Crowe in Gladiator running his hands through it. There was a nice breeze in the air that made the grass sway and shimmer in the sun. The hills turn brown every summer. That’s just how the East Bay is. But when you’re actually in that carpet of yellow, there is a certain beauty to it.
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