Monday, February 10, 2020

Pine Canyon 2-7-20


Starting up Burma Road out of Pine Canyon
For the last few months, most of my hiking has been on the trails of Anthony Chabot Regional Park, where I am accompanied by Maureen riding our horse, Zim. He seems to like having me walking next to him and feels a bit reassured by my presence. We usually don't go more than a mile or two, but it is nice to be out there.

One Friday, Maureen had planned a long trail ride with a friend at the barn, so I decided to go out hiking by myself, and chose to start from the Macedo Ranch trailhead of Mt. Diablo State Park. It was a beautiful day and there were quite a few other hikers heading out. Everything was green and showing signs of spring coming. I went up over the hill and down into Pine Canyon, then started up the other side on Burma Road and then along the ridge. This little section of trail was new to me, and gave me some justification for this post, since most of the hike was on trails that I have written about before.

Sign at the beginning of the closed area

At the junction with the Sunset Trail, there was a sign explaining about the peregrine falcons who nest on the cliffs of Castle Rock and the closure of the area between February 1 and July 31 every year. By being here a few days into February, I had missed my chance to hike further along the ridge, but the hike was going to be long enough anyway.

I headed down the narrow Sunset Trail into a beautiful steep little canyon and then further down Pine Canyon. At the state park boundary there is a meadow with a couple of picnic tables and good views of the big rocks above. I rested here for a few minutes before turning left on the Little Yosemite Trail, a single track that climbs back out of the canyon. It was a tiring climb, but a beautiful trail.

Castle Rock

It was a harder hike than I had done it quite some time, and I was a bit stiff and sore afterwards, but it was such a nice day and very enjoyable.

5.0 miles, 1050 ft. climb