Memorial Day. Clear and warm. I took Darby back to Las Trampas again. This time I was thinking of making a loop that I have done years ago, over Las Trampas Peak and down the east side on the Madrone Trail, then looping back up to the ridge on the Corduroy Hills Trail. It goes through some interesting, more remote parts of the park, but it is a fairly long and hard hike. Of course, I should have known that my ambitious plans often fall apart after a little uphill hiking on a warm day.
Once again, we parked at the bottom of the Chamise Trail. This time we headed up the valley on the Bollinger Creek Trail. There were plenty of others out on the trail as we gently climbed for a while, then more steeply up to the saddle dividing Bollinger Creek and Las Trampas Creek. Now I was getting tired and it was a lot of work to push on up the hill to the top of the ridge. Continuing northwest along the ridge top, it seemed like a lot further than I remembered and more up and down before we began our final climb up to the peak.
More than 40 years ago, I remember hiking this ridge top with my younger brother. We were hiking from our home in Lafayette across the hills to Danville. There was no park and no trails except for ranch roads. It was all private land, but no one was around but for a few cows. It was relatively easy hiking cross-country over the grass covered hills until we reached Las Trampas Peak. From there the ridge was steep, narrow and covered with chaparral. Someone had bulldozed a fire break a short ways along the ridge, so we followed it. Soon it ended, and we pushed our way into the dense brush. From the peak, it had looked like if we could get through a mile or so along the ridge it might get easier. So on we bushwhacked, dropping down on the east side through very steep woods to avoid the chaparral. Hot and exhausted, I realized that it wasn't getting any easier, and we turned back. We fought our way back out and took an easier way down the east side of the ridge.
Hiking along the ridge today, and seeing how dense the chaparral is on the sides of the trail, it was hard to believe that we hiked through it. Finally at the peak, I stopped for a rest and looked around at the view. When I was young, I always thought of the peak as being the 1762 ft. rounded hill about a quarter mile to the north of the high point. That peak has a much better view to the north.
I was fairly tired by now, and the idea of going down the east side of the ridge and then back up was not at all appealing. We hiked back the way we had come, and then continued along the ridge. The trail drops down a little on the east side of the ridge around Vail Peak, a very pretty section of steep woods. We finally came to the Chaparral Trail, which we followed down to our car. It was a tiring but rewarding day.
4.6 mi. -- 1400 ft. up and down
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