Wilderness Quality Time with My Daughter at Las Trampas Regional Preserve

Date: January 15, 2025

Place: Las Trampas Regional Wilderness, San Ramon, California

Coordinates: 37.816703, -122.049741

Length: 3.5 miles

Level: mildly strenuous

This year's January was a dry and sunny month. Despite my thoughts about drought I was happy to take every opportunity I had to be out and about and of course, to go hiking. My younger chika was home on her school break and I invited her to join me on this hike. I chose to go to Las Trampas wilderness Regional Preserve where I've hiked several times in Las Trampas before, but only the short, easy loop around Bollinger Creek. This time I wanted to go on a loop trail on the ridge east of Bollinger Canyon Creek.  

Our hike as captured by my GPS

From the trailhead at the end of the access road was a lovely view up Bollinger Canyon. The shorter version of the Bollinger Creek Loop Trail would begin on that dirt road, going north. 

We weren't going on the shorter loop however, so we went a few steps up the hill to the not very obvious gate in the cattle fence and took the trail, a narrow footpath here, due south. A bit ahead we saw the serpentine curves of the Chamise Trail snaking up the hill. I pointed it out to my chika . She eyed it warily but said it didn't look too high. I agreed and we moved on. 

The earth was very dry, which at the time I was thankful for, having hiked at Las Trampas in the past when it was muddy. It has been muddy fairly recently though, and animals had left their impressions in the dried earth. 

Deer tracks

Just before our first trail intersection we came upon a dismembered bovine skeleton. The skeleton wasn't bone dry, but it had been picked clean, possibly by vultures and helpers. The lower area of Las Trampas near Bollinger Creek is leased for grazing, but other than that carcass we've seen no cattle that day.

Turning left on the Chamise Trail we started ascending Las Trampas Ridge. It wasn't a long climb and soon we were up in the chaparral which covered the higher part of the ridge. 

We also had a great view to the north, of the upper Bollinger Canyon area. It was hard to believe we were in middle of January - the sky was completely clear and blue and the air felt like spring. There was no mistaking the absence of wildflowers, however. It was way too soon to see any bloom yet. 

We reached the next trail intersection and paused there for a couple of minutes to admire the large and crooked-looking live oaks and to consult the trail map. 

My original plan was to continue on the Chamise Trail directly on the Las Trampas Ridge Trail due north but seeing that the narrow Mahogany Trail offered a detour down the creek east of the ridge I suggested to go down that way. I promised my chika that the detour won't extend our hike by much and she agreed to the change in the plan. 

Mahogany Trail

So we went down the Mahogany Trail and immediately were losing all the altitude we had gained coming up the Chamise Trail. From a gap in the trees we had a nice view of the next ridge to the east - steep sloped and covered in chaparral. The trail we were on extended all the way up that ridge as well but we wouldn't be going that far from our original plan for today. 

The chaparral that covered the higher area of the ridge was pretty heterogeneous - not one or two dominant species but many types of bushes, intermixed. The toyon bush was probably the most visible one because of its load of bright red berries. 

Toyon, Heteromeles arbutifolia

The lower we descended into the gulch the taller the vegetation got. The trail was shaded well and ferns appeared as a regular part of the forest floor vegetation. The coffee fern though, is a hardy fern with a thick cuticle on its leaflets, rendering it pretty drought-resistant relative to other fern species.

Coffee Fern, Pellaea andromedifolia 

We continued descending deeper into the gulch. My chika wasn't amused when I guaranteed her that we will regain all of that altitude soon enough. 

Mahogany Trail

We reached the bottom of the gulch which was well shaded by thick canopies of oak and laurel trees. The creek at the bottom of the gulch had some water flowing, but only a trickle.

At the bottom of the gulch where the creek forked the trail forked as well. The path we came down on forked east, becoming the Trapline Trail. It extended all the way up and over the eastern ridge of the wilderness, exiting in San Ramon. I archived that trail in my brain to pull out on another day.

My chika and I turned left to continue on the Mahogany Trail. We crossed the little creek flow, and started ascending back toward Chamise Trail. The trail was steep and ascended fast from the deeply shaded gulch into the higher, open chaparral. 

Poking through the chaparral was a large stone slab that looked like the dorsal fin of a huge sea monster. I am not very knowledgeable in geology but the angle of the slab told the tale of some really powerful tectonics were in play in this area.

A raptor glided across the sky. At first I thought it might be a vulture but as it came closer I saw that it was smaller and more colorful - a red-tailed hawk.

Red-tailed Hawk

A fallen tree blocked our trail. My chika was limber enough to climb on and over the broken boughs but I decided to walk around it. As I circumvented the hole left behind by the dead tree's root crown I saw a few clumps of large brown mushrooms. I figured that this fungus was already decomposing the dead tree's roots that were left in the ground when it fell. 

At the high point of the trail I turned and looked behind at the chaparral-covered eastern ridge. I heard people's voices carrying over from there - other hikers were on the trail that we didn't take.

 

Back on the ridge, on the wider Chamise Trail, we resumed walking northwest. My chika was a bit dismayed that we were going uphill still. She asked for a break but I convinced her to continue some more distance and have our lunch at the top of Vail Peak, up ahead.

Chamise Trail Trail

From the ridge we had a very nice side view of the large rock "fins". From this angle they looked more like the scales of the kraken.

On the west, on the other side of Bollinger Canyon, loomed Rocky Ridge, which was much smoother and was almost free of high vegetation, except for a few oak patches here and there. There were hiking trails there as well, but most of them where outside of the park's boundaries and required a permit from the EBMUD water company which manage this area.

Another raptor glided high above us. This time it was a turkey vulture. I followed it with my eyes until it vanished behind some trees.

Turkey Vulture

We reached the Las Trampas Ridge Trail and continued northwest to Vail Peak. As we ascended higher the view opened up to the northeast and the majestic Mount Diablo came into view.

Mount Diablo

The last bit of uphill climb was short and a bit steeper than the rest of the ridge trail. By the time we were going there I too was ready for a lunch break.

Before being swallowed by the knoll vegetation I turned around and looked southeast where I could see the big drop into the Tri-City Valley and the faint outline of the Ohlone Wilderness ridge in the horizon.

It was in the vegetation on top of the Vail Peak knoll that I saw the first wildflowers on this hike - a gooseberry bush in bloom!

Chaparral Currant, Ribes malvaceum

The Las Trampas Ridge Trail didn't go up to the summit but rather, circumvented it. There was now comfortable place to sit near the trail and when I saw a narrow foot trail going up I motioned my chika to follow me to the summit. We did find a good place to sit there and eat our lunch, but we were surrounded by the vegetation and didn't have a good view point. The nice sight at the summit was the colorful lichen growth on the old, twisted oaks that thrived on that knoll.

After our lunch break we descended back to Las Trampas Ridge Trail and resumed our hike. We were going northwest still, but now we were descending.

Las Trampas Ridge Trail

The view we had before us now was of the Bollinger Canyon below us. It looked a long way down from were we were.

The Las Trampas Ridge Trail merged into the Bollinger Creek Trail. We continued our descent on the trail that was now wider and also steeper.

Lower down the trail the chaparral changed into an oak savanna with bright green new winter grass and patches of dark live oaks.

Bollinger Creek Trail

Between the oaks I spotted the next bloom of the day - the California laurel trees. They were in full bloom and looked very festive.

California Laurel, Umbellularia californica

Just before we reached the valley floor I noticed the third and last wildflower of that hike - a small silver bush lupine with a single inflorescence head.

Silver Bush Lupine, Lupinus albifrons

We reached the Bollinger Creek Loop Trail and I stopped and looked south down the valley. It looked green and inviting. It would be a faster walk back down the dirt road that extended outside of the creek (the one pictured  in the first photo below the map).

Eventually I decided to go down to the creek and follow the narrow and deeply shaded path that stretched along the water. I was hoping to see newts.

Bollinger Creek Loop Trail

The trail was very dry even close to the creek. There was some water in the creek but there too, it was only a trickle.

 

We didn't see any newts that day, but we did see plenty of mushrooms. The heavy smell of rotting wood was in the air, but he mushrooms were pretty.

It was also damp enough beneath the trees to have some nice lush patches of liverwort and other mosses.

There was quite a lot of storm damage along the trail - many fallen trees that were not cleared from the path. I also noticed much damage done by wild pigs - their diggings were everywhere.

We didn't pause on this stretch of trail. Away from the vast vistas of the ridge and seeing that the very creek had little action in terms of wildlife I felt ready to finish the hike.

Somewhere along the way we crossed a large black pipe that extended from the creek all the way up the Rocky Ridge on our right. If that pipe was moving water from Bollinger Creek, no wonder that the creek flow was so low.

My chika spotted a squirrel and I photographed the healthy-looking rodent as it climbed a nearby tree. It was an eastern gray squirrel - a species brought to the west coast by some fellow who thought that the western gray squirrels were not pretty enough! 

Eastern Gray Squirrek

The last bit of trail followed a cattle fence, but we did not see any cows. We stood for a moment at the end of the trail and appreciated the beautiful day and the good time that we had together on this hike. It was however, time to return back home.