Black Point / Lime Ridge

DATE: November 13, 2020
DISTANCE: 19.11km / 11.88 miles
ELEVATION GAIN: 971m / 3186’
TIME TAKEN: 4:38
LIME RIDGE OPEN SPACE
MOUNT DIABO STATE PARK
CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, CA
SOUNDTRACK: Chainsaw Orchestra: Black Point

SUMMITS:
• Lime Ridge High Point: 305m / 1,001’
• Black Point: 546m / 1,791’

PHOTO ALBUM
MAP

"THE SEVEN GATES OF DIABLO" #7






To be honest, even though I was keen to visit Lime Ridge Open Space and Black Point someday, based on their own merits, the true reason for my visit on November Thirteenth was to establish the “seventh gate” to Mount Diablo State Park, the last piece in my project, the Seven Gates Of Diablo: Seven ways to walk into the park from the outside (the park was closed to cars due to the pandemic). Why seven? It just sounded more badass than six. Of all the “seven gates,” this one was the most questionable: Hopping fences and crossing through borderline “private” property, dodging herds of cows, and entering MDSP through a non entrance that is not known to the public whatsoever! If you’re interested in such an adventure, please continue!

I arrived at the Lime Ridge parking lot at Ygnacio Valley Boulevard and Cowell Road, in Concord, at about 7:30AM. The weather was cool, and the sky was grey, but the landscape was just about as dry as could be, having not seen rain since May. I began trekking down the dusty dirt roads that led me into the park. I soon broke off onto dusty trails that wound up into the dusty oaks and parched grass environment that made up Lime Ridge Open Space, and I could see, at first from the tracks, and soon after from the participants, that this was a mountain bike place. And before I knew it, I was dodging them. Everything looked brown and tired and dead, and then Diablo came into view, as it always does. Elevation was gained, and views opened up of the surrounding countryside. There were darker clouds in the distance, suggesting that the long dry season might be about to come to an end.

Within a half hour, I had arrived at my first destination, the Lime Ridge Highpoint, which was crowned by a bench. I wasn’t tired yet, so I didn’t sit, but instead spilled off the south side of the hill to continue towards the park border, following at first, a rustic track through the brush, then the more typical ranch road. Less than an hour in, I was through Lime Ridge Park, and at a private property gate, which I jumped over and continued on my way. I don’t think it was actually private property, just some kind of land reserve that hadn’t been opened to the public yet, or that’s what I told myself to justify it. Now I was in a no-man’s-land of straw colored ranch, nibbled to the stub fearless cows, and toxic green ponds. Some of the cows were blocking the roads I wanted to use, and didn’t seem like they wanted me around, so I actually did some detours into the fields just to avoid them. In less than an hour, it was 9:17 by now, I was through the questionable land tract, and at Mount Diablo State Park’s unceremonious secret back entrance.

I came in on a utility road, which momentarily intersected with Red Road, and less than ten minutes after that, reached the Black Point Trail, which would lead me to my next summit goal. It was here on this winding trail that I saw the only other person of the day in MDSP, a female jogging down the hill. I continued on, until then I had considered it more likely that I would meet a mountain lion than a human, so I guess it was a nice surprise! The trail carried me along and up over the west shoulder of Black Point. With a view out now, I thought I saw some smoke rising from a fire somewhere on the other side of the Oakland Hills… will it ever end? Just before 10AM, I reached Black Point summit, which was marked with a post, and was pretty brushy and unremarkable. But it had a decent view of it’s surroundings: I was able to catch views out to the south, of Olofson Peak, and to Eagle Peak in front of Mount Diablo. In another half hour, I was at the bottom of the trail again, at Red Road, and exited the park the way I had come in. Somehow, on my way back through the cow fields, I took a detour through a woodsy ravine, which would have been rather pleasant in wetter weather. I also captured, photographically, the effect of a hillside divided by a fence, one side cow clipped, one side not.

I had a glance back at Black Point behind me, and then got back into Lime Ridge, on the Paraiso Trail. I took a different way back through Lime Ridge, trying to see the scenery, which consisted of mountain bike chewed trails, blasted hilltops, and weird concrete structures whose presence could not be explained. There was a strange feeling all day, like a tension as the world waited for the first rain of the season finally to come, and it did, not long after. It wasn't much, but it was the beginning. Me, I felt I had gotten away with something, entering Mount Diablo through an obscure entrance that few have ever used, and why would you want to? But that was it: the seventh gate had been passed.

FURTHER READING
• Bay Area Hiker: Presents a handy guide to Lime Ridge
• Bob Burd: Takes the kids to Black Point
• Lime Ridge on PEAKBAGGER
• Black Point on PEAKBAGGER