This highpoint took two tries and a lot of extra driving, but all in all it proved to be a fantastic hike. My first try was just the day before in stormy conditions (see here for details). Aborting that attempt with all the rain, I banked on the possibility the storm would go away and I'd have better weather the next day. I was staying at my sister's place in San Francisco. I left very early on the 21st, still in the dark, and made my way north through Oakland, Vallejo, Napa and all the winery towns along CA-29. In all, about 70 miles from San Francisco to Calistoga, and another 10 miles up the twisty road to the Robert Louis Stevenson State Park, where the trail to the top starts.

The weather had cleared up nicely, although leftover clouds and foggy bits still lingered. I started in about 8:30 a.m. up a nice trail with many switchbacks for about a mile to a stone monument for the author R. L. Stevenson. Apparently he holed up in an abandoned mine nearby in the late 19th century, inspiring him to write. The stone marker is about a mile of hiking with about 300 feet of gain. It's far enough from the highway that it has remained free of vandalism and grafitti, which is nice. From the marker the trail makes two more switchbacks and meets up with a dirt road.

The hike from here just follows this road, which is an excellent road suitable for any vehicle. However, it's a private road, not open to the general public. Normally hiking along roads is not my favorite choice. On the one hand, the roads are graded so that most vehicles won't lug going up hill; this road was probably just a 5-6% grade at its steepest. However, the trade-off is the road meanders much more, making for a longer hike.

This road did exactly that. I made great time due to the easy gradient but the switchbacks seemed to take forever. I briefly considered going cross country under some power lines but opted not to, which turned out to be a good idea: the flora is a dense mesh of chaparral. The road makes about 4 very long switchbacks then achieves a saddle between two peaks, both just about 4,000 feet in elevation. The southern of the two peaks has some equipment on top. From the saddle the eastern summit of Mt. St. Helena was now visible, about a mile away. I continued on the main road. It dipped slightly then started climbing. Here, snow and ice started to appear and get thicker as I gained elevation. A short trail cuts about a half-mile of hiking from the main road, then re-connects with the road. About this time the clouds rolled in again and I hiked the remaining bit in dense cold fog and snow/ice. The snow/ice combo was crusty enough so that I had good traction in regular boots. Shortly, the road topped out at the ridge and a junction.

The Napa highpoint takes the hard-left fork at the junction and climbs another 100 feet or so in about a quarter mile to the summit. The top was snow shrouded and very pretty. I tromped around a bit, checked out the radio tower, then started back. The true summit of the mountain lies in Sonoma county. Normally I would have gone for that, too, but now it made little sense in the fog. I just headed back down. I hadn't seen anyone coming up, but I started to meet more people as I came down. I was back to my truck at exactly noon, which surprised the hell out of me. The total hike involved 9 miles round trip and about 1,900 feet of gain. Three and a half hours? I impressed myself.