Mt. Diablo is easily accessible by road and it is a developed state park. I figured this would be my easiest highpoint of the trip; it turned out to be my most vexing for a number of reasons!

My day began in the town of Calistoga in northern Napa county, near the Napa highpoint. My plan was to hike the Napa highpoint, then make my way south toward the Bay Area for a leisurely drive up to Mt. Diablo's top. Unfortunately, during the night a pretty strong Pacific storm blew in and brought with it much rain and very cool weather. Nevertheless, I drove up the 10 miles or so from my hotel to the Robert Louis Stevenson State Park at the foot of Mt. St. Helena, the Napa highpoint. The rain was steady, and I was ready to make a go of it anyway. I got my gear together, bundled up in rain gear, and started in. I got about a half-mile up the trail when I heard thunder. Not a good sign. Even though the rain wasn't too heavy, I decided to abort the attempt and try it the next day. I returned to my truck and sat in it for about 20 minutes to dry out a bit. I was a little frustrated but not too much. All part of the game, I figured.

I decided to go on to try Mt. Diablo to salvage the day. I headed south through the city of Napa then through Benicia and Walnut Creek to Danville, where I found the road heading up to Mt. Diablo State Park. The rain had remained steady the whole way down, just a generally wet, icky day. The road up Mt. Diablo is very pretty, featuring the classic California scenery of large oaks amid grassy hillsides. I was slightly concerned as I had less than a quarter-tank of gas, but I figured I had enough to drive up and down. After about 9 miles, I came upon the ranger station where I parked to pay my entry fee. That's when I heard the hissing sound.

My stomach sank as I watched my right front tire go flat in a matter of seconds. I saw the culprit: a small, 3/4-inch dagger-shaped rock that was enough to pierce my tire. I pulled out the rock and chucked it. In a steady cold rain, I had no choice but to change my tire, which I did, laboriously, getting fairly wet and dirty in the process. I decided to not chance fate and headed down to Walnut Creek and found a tire place, where I bought a new pair. Since I had about 2 hours to kill, I went to a nice brew-pub for lunch, then looked over the bikes at McGuire's Harley-Davidson shop next door. It was about 2:30 when I got my truck back, ready to go. So I tried again!

The drive back up was pleasant. I paid my $2 to the ranger lady, who was mildly surprised to see me again. But with the weather as it was, she told me they had to close the final 2 miles or so of the road to the summit due to snow and ice. I was allowed to drive as far as Juniper Camp, where I would hike the rest. I was the only person in the parking lot, and I had foggy, blustery (20 knot) winds and sleet to contend with. Beautiful! I found the trail near a picnic area and started up. It was about 1.25 miles one way to the lower summit parking lot, and very pretty, too. The two large summit parking lots were completely empty. It was another quarter-mile of trudging across the parking lots to get to the summit, which is ringed by an access road and topped by a small building and lookout. Total gain was about 850 feet. Judging by the size of these parking lots, I can imagine literally hundreds of people visiting the top simultaneously in good weather. I had it to myself! I found the top no problem and tagged and stepped on about 2 or 3 candidate rocks for the highest point, including some abutting the tower. I didn't stay long and hiked back down to my truck, all in 1.5 hours. It was nearly 4:30 and the sun was setting. By the time I was down to Walnut Creek again, it was dark and I had rush-hour traffic. I made my way to my sister's place in the middle of San Francisco. Now that's some navigating!