After Friday’s 21 miler, I was pretty tired, but I was very much looking forward to the long standing plans I had with Jojo to run Diablo Saturday. If you have been reading this blog for any amount of time, you know that Jojo is my trail twin and we do a lot of long trail runs together. Somehow during all of our runs so far this year, we hadn’t made the trek up Mt. Diablo, and I was so excited to take her up my favorite mountain.
We got started early enough and took it easy going up the mountain. These climbs are tough and I was tired from the day before and she is still recovering from TransRockies (so jealous and so on my to do list), so we were a pretty good match going up.
I had fun showing her around, explaining to her where we were and where other trails that connected to us went.
Happy. 
It hadn’t been cloudy at all at my house when we started, but as we were climbing up the mountain it became very clear that it was cloudy everywhere else! You could see the clouds off in the distance surrounding us.
We continued to climb.
And climb some more. See the clouds on the left?
And as we wrapped our way around the mountain we had made our way above the clouds.
It was pretty incredible.
Then, just like that, we were at the summit!
Since I know Jojo is always up for a little adventure, I tricked coerced her into going a different way down and taking some new trails I hadn’t been on. I was so glad we did!
The clouds were surrounding the other side of the mountain as well.
As we wound our way down the mountain, I was able to make connections to where other trails go, and started planning future adventures. It’s so much fun when you can start connecting everything together.
I took us on a couple other trails on the way down that I have wanted to go on for a while, which proved to be a little tougher than anticipated. I joked with Jojo that I was just giving her payback for the 32 mile death march (which really wasn’t a death march, just a tough run we laugh about all the time now) she took me on earlier this year.
One of the trails we went on was the Falls Trail, which is known for it’s water falls in the winter (I can’t wait!). Of course this time of year it’s pretty dry, but more importantly, it was a technical single track that was tough on our tired legs at that point. We carefully navigated some sandy parts and had to really watch a couple steps. Then just as Jojo opened her mouth to say “they call it falls trail because people fall” I took a dive into a bush (totally fine and not hurt at all). Of course I claimed I did it on purpose to make her laugh in the tough spot of the run.
We finally hit the fire road and made our way back to the car. 16 miles and over 4 hours later with 4500+ feet of elevation gain.
Another trail adventure on the books!
such gorgeous pictures…wow.
That looks so freaking cool above the clouds! Totally worth the trek. Maybe.
Nice running this weekend!
Those cloud pics really are incredible!
I love those cloud pictures! All my pictures from the day, doing a race out of Muir Beach, showed the underside of those clouds. I’ll take the coolness we had though – your course looks like it was a bit warm.
Amazing! How lucky we are to live in such an incredible area.
Those pictures are BEYOND amazing!
Looks like a great run! It gets hot out in those hills though! I hope the clouds helped cool things off a bit!
Everyone’s said it but the pictures are gorgeous and you look SO happy!! I hear there are tarantulas on Diablo…doesn’t that freak you out a bit??
There are tarantulas in the fall. They aren’t that scary – the snakes in the summer are scarier!
Wow. I am always looking for more motivation to start running more outside. Those pics are definitely motivating! We don’t have mountains like that here but it’s hilly with tons of caprocks. Maybe if I get used to them I can run the trails at Yellowstone next time. Have you ever done any trail running at National Parks? If so which is the best?
This literally looks like heaven! You are a lucky girl to have this place to run!!
Wow! Those are awesome pics of your hike! I just love how the clouds wrap around the mountain up to a certain elevation and then it stops. It gives you a sense of serenity when yo look out and all you see is white and blue towards the horizon. Thanks for sharing!
Ron
I climbed Mt Diablo when I used to live in the Bay Area.
Just wanted to thank you for your review of Headsweats. I tried out the visor because of you and I love it.