Posted on July 11, 2011
Mt. Diablo, the Devil indeed
Team Whitney (me and Scott) had been talking for some time about meeting for a couple of lengthy training hikes this summer. He lives in the Sierra foothills so Mt. Diablo seemed like a great midway point for us, not to mention a sufficient training hike for the real deal in August.
We had no idea. The date we picked (weeks ago), July 3, would turn out to be one of the hottest days of the summer so far, with temps forecasted to push 100 in the valleys around Diablo. The forecasters were right. It was hotter than hades.
We did one of the Mt. Diablo Interpretive Association’s “ten demanding hikes,” the loop of Mt. Olympia via Middle Trail. Scott had a good topo map of the mountain, so we made some impromptu diversions and a trek instead to the mountain’s main summit at 3,849 feet. The loop turned out to be longer than we thought — roughly 12 miles and 1,000 feet higher than we were planning, climbing roughly 3,500 vertical feet. We started the hike at 7:30 am and finished at about 2:30 pm.
The hike began at the Regency Dr. gate in the town of Clayton, and the route up started pleasantly. It was mostly covered in shade as the sun rose over the mountain’s southeastern ridges and we did combinations of fire trail and singletrack over some sections with increasingly expansive views of the Bay Area’s eastern valleys. The shade was very helpful, as the climbs were getting steep and we could tell the temperature was rising quickly. We were already sweating buckets after the first mile or two.
After some fun traverses and scrambles through a couple of poison oak-filled creek beds (which cooled us off further thanks to the still-flowing water) we started making the real climb at about the halfway point of the mountain. Then it was up, up, up to the summit which seemed to get further away the closer we got. The last mile up the exposed southwestern face was hot, filled with are-we-there-yets, and dreams of well earned after-hike hefeweizen.
We had some snacks at the top and took in the hazy, summer smog views. I failed to refill my 2L hydration pack at the summit water faucet, which would later prove to be a huge mistake. I didn’t know I was near empty. Plus I had another 1.5L Nalgene bottle full, so figured that was plenty to make it down. Boy was I wrong.
As the sun came up exposing the whole mountain to the now-hot sun, the trek down became a death march. Our quads and knees were burning like the sun, and we had to take some long pauses just to catch our breath. I carried about 20 lbs. in my pack, and the weight was starting to affect me. I hiked this for the first time ever with trekking poles, and while I found them generally kind of annoying to hang onto, they certainly were helpful on the descent both as a leg-saver and stabilizer on the steep sections with loose trail gravel.
The final 1.5 miles was a lesser decline on blazing hot exposed fire trail. I could have used a fire truck to hose me off as I sipped the last drops of what was then hot water from my Nalgene. We were happy to make it back to the gate and the car, and then to the nearest Jamba Juice in Concord. It took me the next day to fully recover, and realize what we had done. We thought we had done a 10 mile loop but Scott checked the topo map and sent the results, which grew more satisfying as my legs became less sore.
Overall definitely a great training hike that we should do again – this is the kind of stress (at altitude) we’ll see on Whitney.
Yeah, Diablo + hundred-degree weather = pain. We tried it on a similar day last year and didn’t make it as far as you guys. Bet that Jamba Juice tasted good! Have fun doing Whitney in August, guys!