Robert and I went for a 3 day, 21 mile backpacking trip in May, through the Ohlone Wilderness that is administered by the East Bay Regional Park District. It is not really back country backpacking, because the Park District provides water and bathrooms at a series of campsites along the 20 mile trail, but I thought it would be a great way to test out Robert's gear and Robert's ability not too far from home. And, you do have to filter your own water so you do get some practice for the more rugged style of backpacking.
We were joined the first couple days by Gilles, a friend from Chevron.
The trails were mostly double track roads, and it was quite hot and dusty.
After reaching our camp the first night, we went for a short hike on the ridge above the campsite. The first days hike was only a couple of miles and a couple of hours. We had a big day the next day, with the camp site at Mt Rose almost 7 miles away with lots of elevation to gain.
Here is a group photo with Lake Del Valle in the background.
We stayed up on the ridge for a most excellent sunset.
Looking west ...
Robert with Lake Del Valle in the background.
It was a truly magnificent sunset, and we were up on the ridge for at least an hour.
The next day we had the plunge down "Williams Gulch", followed by the long, hot, brutal trudge up the "big burn". Gilles went ahead as he was packing out that day and wanted to get to Murietta Falls, so we followed along at our own pace. This picture was taken partway up the burn. We had several water breaks and stops to recover from the climb. Did I mention my 40 lb pack yet?
We did see some very nice wildflowers, here is a sample.
Still working up the burn.
And some more wildflowers.
The worst of the climbing is done now, and we were up on a ridge with a decent breeze to cool us off.
Before we left, I had saved some GPS waypoints for geochaches. We planned to look for the ones that were reasonably close to the trail. At the first geocache Robert traded for some googly eyes.
This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip.
Another 1/2 mile down the trail we ran into Gilles who had been to Murietta Falls. Gilles described Murietta Falls as a trickle with lots and lots of cow poop, so Robert and I decided to skip it and the extra 1/2 mile it would add to our hike and just get to the campsite at Mt Rose. Gilles headed east back to his car at Lake Del Valle, and we continued on to the west towards Mt Rose.
One very interesting thing happened on the way to Mt Rose. We were still an hour from the campsite, walking along in the heat of the middle of the day, paying no particular attention to anything.
All of a sudden we heard the sound of a rattlesnake all raring to go. You should know that way back in the reptile part of your brain, you are wired to run like hell when you hear that sound. It is guaranteed to dump a crapload of adrenaline into your system.
Robert had actually walked within about 3 feet (striking range!) of a large coiled up rattler. It could have went very differently, but the snake slithered off the trail away from Robert and we continued on our way, considerably ahead on adrenaline.
We spent the rest of the trip to the campsite reviewing what to do in worst case scenarios, and feeling quite lucky the day did not end in medical evacuation. We also spent a great deal more time looking at the ground ahead of us. Them snakes is designed to be hard to see.
Anyway, we finally made the final cutoff for the campsite on Mt Rose, and walked past several fields of wildflowers (next three pictures).
This tree caught our eye as we were walking by. Consider it an artistic shot.
Some wildlife.
This field of flowers is right across the street from the campsite we were assigned.
Robert wanted to set up the tent by himself, so here is a series of time lapse images demonstrating his technique.
And this photo demonstrates my attitude whilst he was thus engaged. It is absolutely essential to bring a good pair of flip flops on a backpacking trip.
We had a nice pasta dinner with parmesan cheese (packs well without refridgeration).
And then we went to the summit of Mt Rose, maybe another couple hundred feet of vertical. Mt Rose is only about 50 feet lower than Mr Diablo, the largest peak on the east side of the bay.
The final day was a long one. We had 10 miles to get out of the wilderness, but fortunately it was mostly downhill and we had a lovely breeze on our face the whole way.
We had decided to go out to the west, instead of retracing our steps to Del Valle. This plan involved the sag wagon picking us up at the Sunol end of the trail, but avoided having to repeat the trip up/down William's horrid Gulch. Plus, it is always better to go out a different way from the way you came in.
The road south-west on a beautiful California day.
Robert in a rare moment with his shoes tied.
Robert tying his shoes, for one of the twenty or so times that day.
A nice picture of Mt. Diablo in the distance through the trees.
We had a final geocache to find on the way out. This one turned out to be pretty tricky, and it took us 15 minutes to find the cache. We were sure the standing dead tree was the location, and spent all the time circling around, looking on the rocks, and down in the trunk.
After some careful work with the compass and triangulating the cache from far enough away to get a reasonably bearing with the GPS, Robert was able to hit the jackpot, and it was not near the standing dead tree. He was justifiably pleased.
We traded a toy car for some mardi-gras beads
Here is a view of the terrain on the way out. Most of the trail was downhill, but this was one of the mercifully few sections where we had to do some climbing back up.
More wildlife.
A view of the nice single track trail we followed for the next couple miles.
I am not sure where he got it, but Robert still had energy to climb trees.
The final hill we climbed.
Exit of the Ohlone Wilderness trail onto the Sunol Regional Park.
It feels great to take your shoes off after a 21 mile, 3000 foot vertical backpacking trip, especially if you are an 8 year old! Good job Robert.
Nice job Robert and Dad! Things you will never forget. Good job putting together the photos and comments. Granddnad
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