Responsibly Irresponsible: Summitting Diablo

View from Top of Mt.Diablo

Mt.Diablo - a very prominently visible mountain from almost anywhere in the tri-valley region of the East Bay Area. I see it everyday from my place in Pleasanton with the same admiration and yearning of a kid wanting to go high up in the air.

Its this love for heights that made me want to hike up this close-by mountain of 3849 ft in elevation. If you are thinking "What? this guy is making a big fuss about a mountain just 3800 ft high", then I am not going to stop you from doing so. Of course, this is pretty darn a midget in front of other huge ones like...err..if I may compare with... the Everest. :D. But for me, this had been a nemesis until a week ago when I was able to hike up to its summit in my third try.

Yes. Third try. Not because I didn't have the stamina to go up the first 2 times. Its just because sleep got the better of me and invariably had to start late. I keep watching and reading quite a few mountaineering documentaries and one thing that I have come to understand pretty clearly is that the expedition is complete only when the round trip is complete. And the first 2 times, I wouldn't have completed it well in time with daylight to spare. So, the only thing I had to make sure to do correct the third time was to get up early! And I did...well, 45 minutes behind scheduled time. But that's okay compared to 2 hours,right? ;-)

So I hit the trail from Mitchell Canyon Staging area in Clayton, the same starting point as the previous two tries. The summit is 7 miles hike up the canyon with bursts of very steep elevation gain. It took me 1 hour to reach Deer Flat, the spot where I had to turn back both the times earlier. With the watch showing 9.30 AM, I was definitely happy. Why not? I had come a third of the way up at a time when I was blissfully sleeping on previous hikes :).

Mitchell Canyon Fire Road

Deer Flat

And from here, started the tougher but equally stunning part of the hike. Immediately after the Deer Flat towards the Juniper Campgrounds, the terrain got steeper. But the exhaustion was overwhelmed by the sweeping vistas of the earth below. As I lingered along with very little stops and the single point aim of getting to the summit, I was mesmerized with the view all around. Though I did not take my camera along, I did click a few pictures on my cellphone and kept moving along at a brisk pace. Just that it felt as if it was taking eternity to reach the summit. Especially the last mile and half was excruciatingly frustrating. I increased my pace to the maximum possible without straining too much. At last, summit was achieved at noon.

A Panoramic view from Juniper Trail

Some more views from the same spot.

A few burnt out trees/shrubs were still around. Mt.Diablo had a major fire last year which lasted for close to a week. The fire was visible from Hacienda in Pleasanton!

View of the Summit Road from Summit Trail

The view from the summit was stunning, to say the least. It was a very clear day and I could see the snow capped Sierra Nevada range 200 miles away! After spending around an hour at the top enjoying the breeze and the view all around, I started back down via the North Peak-Meridian Ridge trail. Now, the exhaustion was showing up on me and my legs started hurting. With just 2 energy bars since morning, my stomach also started playing music. 2 more energy bars kept the stomach busy for some time while I made my way back down on the 7 mile trail to the staging area. It was 4 PM by the time I reached my car and thus ended the Diablo Summit hike, finally!

Summit Beacon

Parking Lot at the Summit Visitor Center

The Actual Summit Point

I was overwhelmed with the joy of achieving something that had been lingering on in my mind for the past year. It might be a very small thing, but the feeling of success it gave was something that I definitely wanted. With my next aims set on Half Dome and Mt.Shasta, hopefully sooner than later, this hike was the much needed start I had been lacking for a while. And I am glad I did it! One more item checked off my wish list. Yaaay! :). Few more pics below.

The North Peak with the Sierra Nevada in the background