Mt. Diablo is really far away from my house.

On Tuesday I biked to campus and then ran from there to Mt. Diablo and back. Here's the route. In brief, it's Cal, Tilden, Sibley, Huckleberry, Redwood, EBMUD, Las Trampas, Las Trampas to Diablo Trail, Diablo, Diablo Foothills, Briones to Diablo Trail, Briones Regional Park, Briones Reservoir, EBMUD, Tilden, Cal.

It took me one or two minutes over 25 hours. The route I g-mapped says 59 miles, so I'd say it might be around 75. I started at 4 AM with my buddy Zack. He just PhinisheD and is moving next week for a faculty position at UCSB (congrats, and thank you for imparting so much Tilden-knowledge over the last few years), so we decided to get a final crazy run in together. We got to the summit in a decent 11 hours, bought ice cream at the summit gift shop, and turned back. Zack bailed at Walnut Creek BART, and I kept going, but the next several miles of asphalt bike-path through downtown Walnut Creek were killer on the feet. I didn't get much sleep Sunday or Monday night, so after dark I was really tired and a couple-three times I laid down and took a nap in the middle of the trail. Then after maybe 30 minutes I'd wake up shivering and start going again. I rolled into campus at 5AM. I was kind of hoping to see some early-riser just getting to the department, but the place was empty.

Diablo from Redwood (zoomed in a bunch). This wasn't the first time we could see Diablo during the day, but it was the first time it was light enough for a decent picture.

Alligator Lizard. In other animal sighting news, we saw a gray fox (the only canine that can climb trees), and I got swarmed by bees.

Zack in Las Trampas. Happily, it was overcast for a lot of the morning.

The Summit

Me back at the lacrosse field, lit up in case you want to get your game on at 5 AM.


Overall, I felt good for the daylight hours but pretty crappy during the last few hours, I didn't do a good job loading my iPod (I find books more helpful than songs over ridiculously long stretches), I certainly wondered why the hell I do stupid stuff like this, and I certainly had fun doing it. Also, this trip strengthened my convictions about Bay Area awesomeness, since there is public land the entire way, which made for very little road-walking.

Comments

  1. my name is amy2:40 PM

    oh my hell. you're crazy.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous12:00 AM

    EXCELLENT!! What a great 'last run' with Zack!! Thanks for the write-up and the pics.

    I must say that lack of sleep before long stuff like that makes a HUGE difference - sorry it was too cold for a really nice nap on the trails.

    Sarah (PCTR)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous10:30 PM

    Dude you put Lance Armstrong into the dust man

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mark Tanaka (Ultrailnakaman)2:43 PM

    Awesome!

    ReplyDelete

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