Mt. Diablo is an omnipresent feature of the Tri Valley. It is quite nice to have a 3800 ft high mountain in the backyard. Daily light changes paint the double-headed monster in lovely colors, severe weather makes it look really scary, and an occasional marine layer that sneaks through the 580 corridor and gets stuck in the mountain's mid section makes it look like a fourteener.
I have been to the summit and some trails on Mt. Diablo on foot and on bike several times before, but did not know too many trails there. We went to explore and called it a trail run, knowing that the uphill sections will be a fast hike, if that.
Starting at the Junction, the Summit trail is a relentless climb. It goes up the western slope along the Summit road, meaning it is sunny and exposed. Luckily, today was a pleasant 73F, but this was a sweaty climb.
The viewtower stayed in sight most of the way, except the last few hundred yards of rocky trail above the paved section where the road cyclists weaver at speeds of 2-3 mph.
Few obligatory summit pictures, water refill and we continued east on the North Peak trail. This is one of the few bike legal singletracks on the mountain. Sliding down steep, narrow, rocky trail covered by ball bearing size rocks, with quite an exposure on the right, I started to doubt my idea of coming to ride here. Any other tail in this park would be much safer for mountain bikes.
On the "back side", we decided to loop north on Bald Ridge instead of continuing to the wide and smooth Prospector's gap trail. Bald Ridge was neither bald, nor really a ridge. This was a super narrow and rocky trail perched on a rocky wall just below the summit, overgrown with thick vegetation and going up and down over spines of rocky outcroppings all the time. Its last section before the Meridian Rd was actually very pretty, lava rocks and pines, kind of like in Hawaii.
We dropped way down to a dry creek bottom and started a long climb on fire road switchbacks. Here, our legs clearly let us know that there was enough climbing for the day. After a struggle, we reached the ridge not too far below the summit again and jogged down a gentle slope of Juniper trail.
The last leg down the Junction trail was an exercise in making tired legs slow down on a loose surface, eliciting some sharp pain in my right knee - this pain has been silent since MTB Himachal in 2008. Back at the car after 8.8 miles and over 2500 vertical feet, our supply of fruit and mineral water evaporated before we even managed to take our dusty shoes off. The Devil's mountain had no sympathy on us, and we continue to respect it.
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