DATE: Monday, March 8
DISTANCE: 8.2km / 5.1 miles
ELEVATION GAIN: 284m / 933'
TIME TAKEN: 1:36
SUMMIT: Peak 1038' (316m)
PARK NAME: LAFAYETTE RESERVOIR RECREATION AREA
COUNTY: CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, CA
STOLEN BAY MIWOK LAND
SOUNDTRACK: Stone Titan: Sunny Side Up
FULL HIKE DESCRIPTION COMING SOON!
Barberry and Eurkea are two little summits in the East Bay hills. Eureka is barely on private property, and I have never attempted to reach it, even though I have hiked close by several times over the past few years. Barberry Peak, a feature which I didn’t even know had a name until last year, is a publicly accessible ridgepoint overlooking the east side of the Caldecott Tunnel entrance. They were both on my “East Bay Hills Obscure Peaks To-Do List,” and both would be visited today.
The weekend was here, which means nothing to me, of course, unemployed for almost a year now, but my brother Alex still has a job, and he has weekends off. So as usual, I hit him up to see if he wanted to hike. He also gets the choice of where we go, because his time is much more precious than mine. He had the idea that we would do a warmup hike for our trip to Death Valley, coming the following weekend, so at Big Al’s suggestion, we were at the De La Veaga trailhead in Orinda, to do a repeat, or at least some approximation, of my old “Orinda To Oakland” hike: not carless this time, no use of dirty dog BART. Fearing I would be late for the meetup time, and fighting a hangover from drinking alone at home last night (where else?) I jumped in the van and rocketed myself through the Caldecott Tunnel, to the trailhead. I actually got there first, but Alex was only seconds behind me, and he had to come all the way from San Francisco. We tried to approximate the weight of the backpacking load we would be carrying in Death Valley, Alex with his large pack at 25 pounds, and me with my daypack, stuffed with as much extra weight as I could find, including junk from the back of my van, which got it up to 22 pounds. I followed proper protocol, and singed in at the trailhead with my EBMUD permit number, and we were off, on what has become one of my most familiar trails.
We were soon lost in conversation, and before I knew it, there was a fire road off to the right, and I said “how would you feel about a mild trespass to an obscure East Bay peak?” He was game, and we veered off, contouring along the hillside cow trails, to be away from the view of the house that was right there by the peak, even though we weren’t even trespassing yet. Around this time, we saw three coyotes in the valley below. Cool! We came around the west side of the hill to remain out of sight, and then went straight up. Then, at the top of the climb, where there was a fence delineating the private property of Eureka Peak, there was one more coyote! Less than 15 feet past the barbed wire fence, and we were on Eureka. A good view of Mount Diablo and Vollmer Peak nearby. Then we went straight down through the fields to rejoin the De La Veaga Trail below, which carried us up the west side of Siesta Valley, into Oakland, and back to civilization, as we heard the roar of cars on Grizzly Peak Boulevard.
Erupting now into daylight now, out of the tranquil Eucalyptus and Bay Laurel groves, we crossed GPB, dodging both motorists and cyclists, and went into the muddy trails of Claremont Canyon Regional Preserve. Not too long after this is my favorite part of the Orinda To Oakland hike, where you come around the bend and the whole of Oakland, San Francisco and The Bay is revealed before you! Magical every time. At this point, there were now quite a bit of people about, coming up from Berkeley, from the west, to enjoy the weekend afternoon. We didn’t feel the need to go all the way down to the bottom of the Berkeley side, because we were not planning on using BART. So we turned around, and headed back the way we came. Back across GPB, and then at the four-way trail intersection, I said to Alex, “how about we go check out Barberry Peak?” And that was it, off to the next quest.
A short jaunt down the Bay Ridge Trail, and we got to the unofficial track that leads up to Barberry. There was a picnic table there, so we sat down and had a quick snack. Then up the hill. The use trail continued all the way to the top, with classy switchbacks and everything. The peak had some rocky bits, and an open view of the surrounding area, especially down to the 24 freeway cut. Urban hiking at it’s finest. We decided to make things interesting, yet again, by not returning the way we came, but by looking for a way down the ridgeline towards the California Shakespeare Theater. The idea seemed bunk at first, a potential total bushwhack, but then just like magic, a faint trail appeared that carried us almost all the way down to the bottom of the ridge, where it magically disappeared again with no evident destination, and we had to slide down a steep, slippery hillside, plough through a tangle of brush, and we were finally delivered down at the Cal Shakes Theater.
The facility was officially closed due to Covid (obviously), but the theater was still physically open (no doors), so we went inside and had a look. From there, we decided to take the most direct way possible back to the trailhead, traveling N/NE over two fences, through the EBMUD watershed and cow fields, where we soon found another old trail that led us through a gap in the ridge, back to the more robust system of cow and farm roads on the other side, which funneled us finally back into the De La Veaga Trail. From that point, we were down to the cars on the Orinda side in a matter of minutes. It ended up being a wild variation on the Orinda To Oakland Hike, but highly successful in researching the obscure peaks of the East Bay hills.
FURTHER READING
Oakland Geology: Some science on Barberry Peak and surroundings
Bob Burd: Bob handles Eureka Peak and many others
I wrote most of this, but never finished it, during the pandemic shutdown of 2020. It took me a long time to find the "Seventh Gate" to Diablo (through Lime Ridge), and even longer to write the Lime Ridge trip report that was the final piece of the puzzle. By the time I actually finished the "Seven Gates" article, Mount Diablo State Park had long ago re-opened to cars, and my information was basically useless. But here's the entire guide as it was originally meant to appear. And it's still fun to walk into MDSP from any of these access points! -HMM 5/21/2022
Mount Diablo State Park remains closed to vehicular access, but that doesn't mean you can't get in... you'll just have to walk a little bit. During the Covid-19 lockdown, I've spent a good amount of time exploring the ways to enter Mount Diablo State Park on foot. Just in time for it to get REALLY HOT out there, here is a list of the points I have used to gain access. Once inside the park, you have the ideal situation for social distancing, because barely anyone is there! I would almost say these "seven gates" lead to seven different worlds, because Mount Diablo has so many mirco-climates and micro-regions! Try a few different ones! There are other ways to enter Mount Diablo on foot, but many are within the private gated communities which surround the park on most of the West and South sides. These are the seven entrances that I have personally used.
4. HOWE HOMESTEAD: ACCESS FROM WALNUT CREEK
6. FINLEY ROAD: SOUTHEAST ACCESS
Finley Road, at the north end of Tassajara, can be used as a back door to Mount Diablo State Park or Morgan Territory Regional Preserve. Finley Road ends at a gate, at a private property line, so you have to park about a half mile down the road on a dirt shoulder and walk back to it. Once beyond the gate you can continue on "Old" Finley Road towards Morgan Territory, or hang a left on the Oyster Point Trail, which will lead you into the Black Hills region of Mount Diablo SP. While far from the summit, this secluded corner of the park has charms of it's own: myriad rock outcroppings, oak shaded ravines, and even an inexplicable pine forest! Read the report HERE.
•TRAILHEAD LOCATION
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
DATE: Wednesday, May 20, 2020
DISTANCE: 26.54 km / 16.49 miles
ELEVATION GAIN: 910m / 2986 ft.
TIME TAKEN: 7:15
MORGAN TERRITORY REGIONAL PRESERVE
MOUNT DIABLO STATE PARK
CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, CA
SOUNDTRACK: Scorpions: Wind Of Change
SUMMITS:
•Windy Point: 644m / 2112 ft.
•Black Hawk Ridge: 622m / 2040 ft.
•Oyster Point: 642m / 2106 ft.
PHOTO ALBUM
MAP
Finley road, at the north end of Tassajara, outside of Livermore, can be used as a back door to Mount Diablo State Park or Morgan Territory Regional Preserve. Finley Road ends at a gate, at a private property line, with no parking right at it. So you have to park about a half mile down the road on a dirt shoulder and walk back to gain entry. Once beyond the gate you can continue on "Old" Finley Road towards Morgan Territory, or hang a left on the Oyster Point Trail, which will lead you into the Black Hills region of Mount Diablo SP. While far from the Diablo summit, this secluded corner of the park has charms of it's own: myriad rock outcroppings, oak shaded ravines, and even an inexplicable forest of Knob-cone Pine!
I figured this would be the last Mount Diablo hike of the season, until the cooling rains of winter arrived. It was about to get 'ot! Bloody 'ot! And while I don't mind hiking in the heat (a good way to sweat out the toxins!), getting up really early to avoid the worst sun of the day can be fun, I have personal transportation and fat government checks rolling in to subsidize my whimsical outdoor lifestyle, so for me, the coming heat of the Bay Area inland valleys signaled a time to focus my attention on the Sierras, and other cooler, breezier places. But before we go up there, let's have the last Diablo hike of spring 2020! This was a continuation of my Mount Diablo State Park exploration which had been ongoing during the Covid-19 pandemic. I was looking for all the ways to walk into the park from the outside, the entrances were all closed to motor vehicles. This was entry point number six. Finley Road entrance doesn't start you off in MDSP, or even the adjacent Morgan Territory, but it gives you access to both, an isolated backdoor. In fact, it's one of the most obscure of all entrances to Mount Diablo, being over five miles as the crow flies from the summit.
My hike began about 10AM, walking up the pastoral country road from the turnout down Finley. It was less than ten minutes to walk to the gate, ten more minutes on the road through private estates, and I was at the boundary of Morgan Territory. Two notable features after this were a washed out section of road, and a dilapidated old house. I can just read the real estate listing now! Scenic location! Filled with air and light! Bring your contractor and make your dream a reality! Turned left on Oyster Point Trail, which brought me to the MDSP boundary in six more minutes. Oyster Point Trail follows along a forested hillside of the ridge that contains Oyster Point, it felt a little bit wild, rustic, no people around at all. As I gained some elevation, I could see out at Marsh Benchmark to the east (previous hike), and north to the extensive rock formations that characterize this remote corner of the park. As always, I took note of El Diablo's first appearance. By 11:32 AM, Oyster Point Trail dumped me out of the woods, and into an open meadow, where an easy to miss signpost was not missed, and it directed me up to the summit of Oyster Point. The trail is faint and lightly used, but I was able to find my way up to what I determined was the actual high point, and also the placemark stick by 11:48AM. Back down, back along the trail. I was headed for Black Hawk Ridge now.
Oyster Point Trail continued west from the meadow, down and up and down through two creekbeds and through another semi-wild, woodsy area, where I encountered a lone mountain biker. I was dismayed to see some unsightly high tension power lines cutting directly through one of the most elegant rocky sections. Like an almost national park level of geological splendor, and THIS is how they choose to embellish it? "Where should we put these fucking power lines? How about right here, directly through these rocks? OK! Looks good to me!" I consoled myself thinking that someday, the power lines would be gone, and the rocks would still be there for millions more years. After this, I reached a five way intersection crossroads, and turned south. Up to the Blackhawk Ridge, which is rather open, and gave me a good view back to Oyster Point. Following the top of the ridge, I found the exact high point of Blackhawk, which is a small rock monolith. Continuing along the ridgetop, I caught a gimpse of my future destination, Windy Point. I chose to walk down the trail to the far west end of Blackhawk Ridge, and then loop back on a lower trail, so I could see a bit more of the park. The lower trail brought me east, back to the five way intersection. I now turned north, and soon split off of the fire / service road (that leads to access the power lines), on a single track trail that leads into an area colloquially known as "José's World." This is the heart of the rock formations of the Black Hills area. I sat down upon one of them, and finally ate lunch. Then half-heartedly looked for a path through the brush and boulders that would bring me to the area high point known as "Knob Point." But I soon decided to save it for another day. I still had a long path ahead of me.
José's World Trail cut through from one fire road to another, and I popped out on the next east/west trajectory, first turning west (left) to have a look at Balancing Rock. It was now 2PM. Then I went back east on the fire road, past José's World, continuing to a private property gate. I took the ranch/fire road through the mostly open fields to the base of Windy Point. It was only just before I reach W.P. that I officially re-entered MDSP again. Windy Point was reached by cutting uphill from the road, through the grass, to yet another oak and rock crowned East Bay hilltop. But it wasn't just any East Bay Hill. Rush fans take note, the summit of the hill has an elevation of 2112'! Maybe now you know the real reason I wanted to climb it! Windy Point lorded over the area, and gave me another view out to Marsh Benchmark, and beyond. It was now 3:09PM, and I had completed my agenda of features to visit for the day, so it was down, down, down the ranch roads, down the Tasajara Creek watershed. I took a break at a cow pond, which, unusually, had a name: Bob's Pond. Tassajara Creek Trail was a nice woodsy path that was in the oaken shade of the canyon. By 4:50PM, I had rejoined Finley Road, and was headed back through that corner of Morgan Territory, back past the abandoned homestead, back through the gate, back to the van. It had ended up being a long day, about 7.5 hours going 16.5 miles. I stopped at the grocery store on the way home and bought ingredients for the lasagna.
FURTHER READING
•Hiking Project: Some info on Oyster Point Trail
•Bob Burd: Bob handles Windy Point and Blackhawk Ridge in an efficient manner
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| Howe Homestead Park |
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| Shell Ridge high point (center right) |
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| China Wall formation |
