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| Ohlone Wilderness Trail |
Date: May 22, 2021
Place: Ohlone Wilderness Trail, between Sunol and Livermore, California
Coordinates: 37.513982, -121.794153
Length: 10.4 miles
Level: strenuous
The first night of a camping trip is usually a restless one and the first night of my Ohlone Wilderness Trail was no different. I am positive however, that I had slept significantly better than my two companions, one of which found sleeping on a thin mattress on the ground an uncomfortable ordeal and the other came unprepared for the night temperatures and was very cold the whole night through. I had slept in the middle and my own sleep was disturbed by my companions's restlessness.
The morning found us in somewhat of a sour mood, probably because of the less than satisfying night sleep. I was the first out of the tent and by the time my companions were out I had the hot water ready. A hot beverage works wonders in lifting u the mood.
The water spigot was at the very end of the campground, a good walk from our tent. Having found that out the night before I was conscious to take with me as many water vessels on my way there to minimize the need for too many round trips. I saved filling our water bottles for last because that spigot was on our way onward.
Below the spigot was an aluminum trough that was filled to the brim from a dripping hose. Near the trough were the overflowing water soaked the ground was a patch of very lush vegetation. Some of the plants were yellow monkeyflowers in bloom.
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| Yellow Monkeyflower, Erythranthe gutatta |
After breakfast we packed everything and started uphill again, past the other campsites, We paused by the water spigot and filled our bottles. The water provided on the Ohlone Wilderness Trail isn't potable and needs to be treated, and filtering water for all of us took some time. I made sure that we a had our bottles filled up because it wasn't clear when we would come by another water source next.
This day would be our longest hike of this trip, and I expected it to be the most strenuous one. I was very excited about it also because we would go up Rose Peak, for the first time.
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| Our hike from Sycamore campsite to Stewart's Camp as captured by my GPS |
My mood improved the moment we were out of the campground: many mariposa lilies dotted the dry grass on both sides of the trail. I saw many of them that day, but those first lilies I saw that morning seemed to be the most beautiful.
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| Yellow Mariposa Lily, Calochortus superbus |
Right from the start we were going uphill, and soon we cleared the campground. We passed a cattle gate and I turned around and looked behind me. I could see Mission Peak, small and distant.
One can always count on seeing California poppies booming in the East Bay hills and sure enough, they were. Not in great carpets as I've seen them before but still in respectable numbers.
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| California Poppy, Eschscholzia californica |
Ahead of us stretched our narrow trail. No more wide dirt roads in this wilderness area. The trail gently contoured the mild hills. The day's hike was an easy walk, except for the loads on our backs.
Soon after we set out into the wilderness we fell into a pattern of
walking where two of us would chat together and the third would either
move faster ahead or linger in the back (that was usually me, photographing flowers).
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| Western Vervain, Verbena lasiostachys |
Harvest brodiaea is one of the more common lilies in the Bay Area but its numbers too were greatly reduced because of the drought.
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| Harvest Brodiaea, Brodiaea elegans |
Going up a mild slope we eventually reached a petty plateau that featured these rugged, lichen-covered rocks. It was a good place to pause for a sip of water and to regroup.
Deep below us to the south was the valley carved by the Alameda Creek. Most of the hills overseeing that valley had the soft contours of water erosion to them. Here and there however, were sharp, tooth-like points that seemed to have been formed by the more violent event of a land collapse. I don't know if that how this happened, it's just the first thing that came to my mind.
In we went. Until then we had only casual chats about trivial things but a curious remark of one of my companions about her father had intrigued me and the third hiker. I have learned the hard way not to pry into other people's personal lives but my other companion had no such limitation. With a few direct question she got the first one to start telling, little by little, her entire life story, which turned out to be one of the most strange and outstanding life stories I've heard.
My companion's story is of course, not mine to tell here. I will say though, that it kept us fascinated and engaged in active conversation throughout that day's hike. I also learned quite a few facts from listening to that story, such as the existence of field navigation competitions. I had no idea that people compete at that! I am a decent navigator myself but I would never dream of competing at it as a sport on its own. To me it's only means to find the place I want to go to. Still, it is fascinating to know.
Right by the trail ahead of us was a piece of a stump on which perched a small bird. Flycatchers like these kind of posts but this one was a sparrow. I'm not an expert birder but my elder chika is and she identified it as a lark sparrow from the photo I took. It actually tolerated me getting quite close before it took off.
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| Lark Sparrow |
Solitary oak trees are a very common sight in the open hills. Solitary buckeyes are a less common sight. At least I don't see them standing alone very often. This one was in full bloom when I saw it. Like a bright chandelier of white candles.
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| California Buckeye, Aesculus californicus |
Oak trees can cover a hill side or they grow separately, allowing their individuality to show. I love the shapes and personalities of the oak trees of the East Bay. Each of them has its own story to tell. This particular tree was perfectly located and had a low, sturdy bough we could sit on. We stopped there for a lunch break.
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| Coast Live Oak, Quercus agrifolia |
During our lunch break one of my companions commented about the hardship of this trail and the slow pace we were walking. She wondered if we would make it to our next reserved camp site before nightfall. Admitting, we were going slow, and by our lunch break we still didn't make the half way point. I wasn't concerned, though. We were still on the uphill part and would be going faster once we passed Rose Peak. We were also holding a fairly early lunch break and there was still plenty of daylight left to play with.
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| Yellow Mariposa, Calochortus luteus |
When we got on with our hike my companion went on sharing her life story with us. Some second guessing and misinterpreted comments by my other companion resulted in some friction between them. For some time there was tension in the air and one walked briskly ahead while the other sulked silently some distance behind me.
I didn't say anything, fearing it might make things worse. I kept on walking, occasionally divulging bits of information about the nature around us to the hiker that was nearest to me.
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| Morning Glory, Calystegia malacophylla |
We passed a cattle pond that was close to the trail. I saw some water plants growing there and decided to go down and take a closer look.
The pondweed that grew along the pond's circumference were just beginning to bud out. I was too early to see them bloom.
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| Pondweed, Potamogeton nodosus |
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| Blue Dicks, Dichelostemma capitatum |
Not long after that the story teller had to pause because we started ascending the Ohlone Ridge leading to Rose Peak, and once again we strung out due to the differences in our hiking pace.
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| Ohlone Wilderness Trail |
As we ascended higher the sky got cloudier and the temperatures dropped. Although it didn't get downright cold, it was considerably cooler now. I for one, embraced that change because previously I was too hot. As long as we were on the move I didn't feel the need to stop and don my sweatshirt.
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| Graceful Clarkia, Clarkia gracilis |
Mid May is also mid-bloom season. There were many flowers blooming and many just beginning there bloom. There were also those that already finished blooming and were at the stage of fruiting and dispersing their seeds. I was tempted to blow these fluffy parachute seeds ball as I was doing in my childhood. I cannot recall now wether I did that or not. Probably not, because bending over a plant that's close to the ground is too demanding with a heavy pack on the back.
According to the map we were coming up one of the wilderness campgrounds that are along the trail. It wasn't the one that we reserved for the night but I wanted to stop there nonetheless, because it had a water spigot and a pit toilet. The campsite turned out to be somewhat removed from the main trail. On the way down to the water spigot I found the first white globe lilies of this trip.
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| White Globe Lily, Calochortus albus |
We took anther snack break near that campsite. One of my companions got concerned once more about getting to ur reserved site on time. She suggested we stayed where we were. I rejected that idea immediately. For one, I didn't know if anyone else had reserved that site. Also, staying here would have made the following day's hike considerably longer. I estimated that we still had plenty of daylight left and that we need not worry about dark hiking.
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| Bird's Eye Gilia, Gilia tricolor |
I was prompted however, to get up and hoist my pack. My companions did the same and we resumed our hike. The clouds were gathering and the wind picked up.
We were going steadily uphill. Behind another curve Rose Peak came into view. It looked unassuming. Surrounded by all the neighboring hills it didn't look all that high. 3,817 ft high, it is the highest point of the Ohlone Wilderness Trail, about a 1,300 ft higher than the prominent-looking Mission Peak.
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| Rose Peak |
At the peak we took another break, and posed for selfies and view photos. We were awed by the gorgeous 360° view visible from the peak. Too bad the visibility wasn't so great.
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| Looking north: Mount Diablo, viewed from Rose Peak |
I pointed out the landmark peaks to my companions. Mount Diablo is easily identifiable by its isolated double peaks. Mount Hamilton is slightly higher than Mount Diablo, but is much less prominent because it is surrounded by other high peaks. The feature that identifies it without a doubt are the white domes of the Lick Observatory.
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| Looking south: Mount Hamilton , viewed from Rose Peak |
Mount Umunhum of the Sierra Azul is also identifiable by a human-made feature - the large cubic structure that used to hold the Air Force radar before the area became a public open space.
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| Looking southwest: Mount Umunhum, viewed from Rose Peak |
Mission Peak is also visible from the Peak of Mount Rose. It still shows its pyramid top even from the east. It also looks much smaller and unimpressive, dwarfed by the Ohlone Wilderness ridge. I didn't include this photo.
The sky begun to clear almost immediately after we started descending from Rose Peak. It didn't clear all the way but the sun came out again and the wind died down some. As I expected, our pace increased considerably. Moreover, the general mood of our trio had risen. No more concerns were voiced about us making it on time to the next campground.
We did have a few more miles to go and my companion was still not close to concluding her life story. For a good distance we walked in a synchronized pace, me and my other companion listening attentively.
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| Beetles pollinating Lomatium sp. |
Occasionally I would pause for a moment to take a snapshot of a flower or another interesting sight but mostly I was satisfied with walking at the brisk pace we settled into.
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| Cress? |
We descended eastward but the big drop was to our southwest and the view opened up all the way down to the South Bay and the Santa Cruz Mountains. Once again I regretted that the air quality was so poor and that the view was so hazy. At least it wasn't smoky. Not yet.
The trail steepened even more and curved northward. The shadows were extending. The disturbed patch of soil near the trail was carpeted with little Collinsia flowers and I stopped for a few moments to look at them. When I raised my head I saw that both my companions had already moved on, leaving me behind.
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| Chinese Houses, Collinsia heterophylla |
I quickened my pace and caught u to my friends in time to point out to them the remains of a burnt tree that looked to me like a pioneer woman holding her dress while walking through the gasses.
All the way downhill was a narrow creek, trickling water still. A low earthen dam formed a shallow pond covered with red pondweed.
The trail was muddy near the creek and all three of us clambered on the side slope to avoid getting our shoes all muddy. A few nonchalant cows and steers eyed us as we passed them and moved on.
For a short distance we walked along the creek, near the cattle grazing area. Bluebirds hopped between fence poles and I managed to photograph one of them that remained close enough to the trail.
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| Western Bluebird, male |
Now we had to go uphill again. My companion groaned at the sight of the steep slope, but rather than slow down, she quickened her pace, and soon vanished around the curve. My other companion was struggling with a new problem - she was developing blisters on her feet and couldn't walk as fast. We continued to walk at the same pace as before, making slow but steady progress up the hill.
There was still plenty of daylight left, but the shadows were getting long and the moon was rising. We walked up and up and saw no sign of our third companion who seemed to have grown new vigor and walked much faster than us. I voiced my concerns that she might miss the turn to our camp site. I didn't remember if I gave her a map of the trail and I wasn't sure that she would even stop to look at it. Earlier she said she was getting exhausted and I fear that she would simply go on and on without paying attention to the trail. We tried calling her but she was too far away. We had no choice but to go on and hope that she'll stop and wait for us.
As it turned out my fear was moot. Our speedy companion did stop and wait for us and she was in an elated mood when we arrived. She dismissed all of our concerns and reminded us that she had done some treks before and knew what she was doing. I was glad to see that she was in a sharp state of mind and without any sign of fatigue.
The trail junction we sought was just around the corner. we turned onto it, taking a little detour from the main Ohlone Wilderness Trail to get to Stewart's Camp which we had reserved for the night. I wondered how many other hikers we would see there - we had seen few few that entire day. We didn't see any humans though. Only a squirrel that was too busy to pay attention to three tired women that rolled heavily to the campsite.
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| California Ground Squirrel |
We arrived at Stewart's Camp with enough daylight to build our camp and cook dinner. As the sun set the temperatures dropped sharply again. We cleaned up the camp area and I volunteered to wash the dishes, freeing my companions to get into the warmth of the tent and the sleeping bags. I washed the dishes slowly, enjoying some quiet time before joining my friends inside the tent.
Nice flowers and great views from the peak. As for the mood, it seems you had more ups and downs than the trail...
ReplyDeleteYes, that's how it's like when going out on a voyage with two new companions ;-) Makes things interesting.
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