Briones has been one of my favorite parks, but I hadn't been there in a pretty long time. I guess it seemed like a longer drive than closer parks, but it is really not so far. The weather had been cool for a couple of days, and the morning started out foggy so I didn't try to get an early start. By noon, it was starting to clear, so Darby and I drove north on 580 and through the tunnel to Orinda. I saw that traffic was barely moving in the other direction, surprising for a Sunday, so I figured that we should return on 680 instead.
We started hiking from the Bear Creek Road entrance and headed southeast on the Seaborg Trail. Late spring rains and cool weather had kept the grasses green. Usually by the middle of May they would be getting dry. The trail was a easy fire road for a mile and a half or so, then climbed about 600 feet to a ridge top. I remembered that there were nice views from Lafayette Ridge, which branches from this ridge a quarter mile south, so we walked over there. We weren't disappointed. The view is great to the east and south. Mt. Diablo, Lafayette Ridge, Las Trampas and Rocky Ridges, the town of Lafayette, and the east side of the Berkeley Hills.
After a few photos, we retraced our steps and continued north along the ridge. There was still a fair amount of climbing to do as the ridge gains a couple hundred feet of elevation. The views continue to be good, first on one side, then the other as the road winds along the crest. It was still cool and windy, but clear and sunny now. We passed several other hikers, but for much of the way we were alone.
There are a collection of small antennas at one of the high points, peak 1433. Just short of this peak, I looked to the east at the very steep chaparral covered slopes that form a natural amphitheater there. I've always remembered these slopes, because in my boy scout days, a friend and I hiked up there and found a rough path out to a shallow cave that kids had carved out of the cliff. We hung out there and enjoyed the view. The ridge continues around to the northwest in gentle ups and downs, past the high point, Briones Peak.
Another memory came back, this time of hiking up to this area with my high school girlfriend. This must have been around 1961, before Briones was open as a park. There was an old unpaved county road connecting Bear Valley to Alhambra Valley, and we had parked at the summit. When we returned from our hike, there was an guy in a truck there to chew us out for trespassing, but he let us go.
On the Old Briones Road Trail, Darby and I headed southwest down off the ridge and along the valley back to the trailhead, passing many more hikers.
6.5 mi. -- 1550 ft. up and down
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