Antioch to Mount Diablo

The run started at about 9:15 AM. I intentionally packed quite light, carrying just a water bottle, a hand bottle, and a few energy gels. I popped into a gas station to grab a quick Gatorade and a Clif bar.

Leaving Downtown Oakland for suburbia feels like stepping into a parallel, slightly softer universe.

I was excited to enter the first real park of the day. Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve is three things. First, it's the ancestral homeland of the Ompin, Volvon, and Julpun tribes, second it was 19th century coal mining territory, and today it's an 8,533 acre park. The hills are modest, and I hoped this meant the running would be easier.

The reservoir was buzzing with mid-morning foot traffic. The hills were quiet though, and cows quickly replaced people.

The cows sauntered out of the way as I spoke politely to them and approached slowly.

Cresting the hill, the North Peak of Mount Diablo stands 3,556 feet tall just over the next line of hills.

An expansive valley to the south was the best view of the day.

The bare hills and cow-trampled pasture give way to red sandstone and dense brush. I wasn't moving quickly, but things were easy and smooth at this point.

A snag. My route planning was based on the Public and Private land use layers of GaiaGPS. Clayton Ranch Regional Preserve (above, red polygon) is a 4,200-acre patchwork of acquired land belonging to East Bay Regional Park District. I hoped that as public land it would be accessible, but my planned route through it (red line) was unambiguously closed to foot traffic. After a couple attempts to find an alternate route, I settled on the appropriately-named Black Diamond to Mount Diablo Regional Trail (blue line).

The connector trail is surrounded on all sides by private land, but it saved me from having to bail to Pittsburg.

The price of this detour was a four-mile stretch on the highway which I'd hoped to avoid.

Mercifully, Mount Diablo State Park abuts the highway, and there's a perfectly pleasant trail that allows you to skip the last mile along the road.

Finally, the main focus of the day loomed above. The Diabolical Trail is a two mile trail that averages about 27% grade (!) as it ascends 2,900 feet from the valley to the North Peak of Mount Diablo. 🔥🦵🔥

Eighteen miles into the run, my legs were not fresh.

On a clear day, you can see about 90 miles east to snow-capped peaks of the Sierras.

The summit of the North Peak marked the division between the nice part of the day's run and the rest of it.

In my younger years, I'd have made quick run up to the main peak of Mount Diablo, but I focused on just getting home in once piece.

The eastern slopes were warming in the midday sun, so I was surprised to see north-facing ridge trail still lined with frost.

By 23 miles, plantar fasciitis set in, and what should have been a victorious descent down the final ridge was a heavy slog down the hill.

The road to Clayton extends into the distance. My attention began to fixate on weekend bus schedules.

I spent the last two miles of the run fighting the Apple Maps interface, trying to get it to refresh both my current position and the time remaining before arrival of the bus.