Today, March 7, 2008, we hiked on the north side of Mt. Diablo. We hiked up Back Creek Trail. The trail started out in the open with views of the peaks with fields of mustard in the foreground. We saw a variety of trees and flowers.
FYI - The tree we were trying to identify with the five narrow leaves arranged in groups of five, like fingers on a hand were California buckeye.
After about one mile of hiking along the stream we turned left on Tickwood Trail, traveling on it until we reached Donner Canyon Road. Along the way we spotted many of the flowers we saw last week plus woodland star and scooting star.
The weather was perfect for hiking once again. Once we reached Donner Canyon Rd. we headed steep uphill for a short way and turned left of Hetherington Loop Trail. This took us though an area of manzanita terrain. We had a small water crossing. This loop took us back to Donner, a little lower down the hill, on which we returned to our car. We hiked for a total of 2 hours and about 3 1/2 miles
Today’s hikers were Jacky H., Lois T., Claudia W., Kathy I., Shirley A, Julie G., Sharon K., and guest Greta. It was very nice hiking with you Greta and I hope you will join us again soon. It was good to have Julie G., back with us after a long absence.
Thank you for driving Lois. Afterwards we all had lunch at the Bagel Street Cafe.
Our next scheduled hike is March 21. I may add another hike on the 14th. Watch for my e-mail.
Happy Trails, Sharon
