10-19-06
Start: Clayton, CA
Destination: Campground at Mt. Diablo
Elevation: 1830 ft.
Miles: 14.3
Weather: Sunny, hot, cloudless (again! yeah!)
We climbed steep trails today. They were pretty brutal, but fun. It felt good to climb like that again - up a mountain. We sweated a lot, drank lots of water, and got some amazing views. We could see the valley and delta area, and even the far-off Sierras. Once at the summit, what was really freakin' exciting, was the very faint view of the Golden Gate Bridge!!!! We are soooo close! One guy pointed to a mountain and said, "Yeah, Pt. Reyes is right on the other side of that. You're almost done."
We talked to a lot of people at the summit visitor's center. Bikers, day-hikers, visitors, rangers... it was a lot of fun up there. We sat and ate lunch, made some coffee and then headed downwards. With the slow, steep climb this morning, we weren't going to make it to Walnut Creek, so we headed to the Ranger's Station and grabbed a camp site.
Oh, on the way down, mom saw a rattlesnake - a live one! He slithered into a bush and we (thankfully, I suppose) didn't see him again. I went back looking, hoping to snap a picture, but no luck. Mom said he was medium-sized. And there are tarantulas here, although we haven't seen one. Yikes! They can get big, too. If I see a freakin' hairy tarantula as big as my hand walk across the trail, I think I'd poo. But apparently they don't bite unless provoked, and it's not any worse than a bee sting. Or so we've read. Still, 8 legs is too many legs, especially 8 hairy ones...
So here we are, in our tent. We are listening to several critter noises. We're not sure what's out there. We had coyotes howling just across the road from us a bit ago. They were so loud! Mom blew the whistle and they headed north-west away from us. Then we heard something large (not squirrel-size) in the grass, and now some weird scraping sound by the bathrooms. Raccoon? I hope... Time to fall asleep. That way I won't notice the noises. That's if they stop long enough for us to even fall asleep. It's a little scary, but exciting!
Only 8 days 'til the finish!
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