Its one amazing journey through the woods and steep slopes, a must do!
The tribe arrived in the town of Clayton, CA, parking is by the roadside on Regency Drive, this is a great access point for the trail. Alternate routes via the Mitchel Canyon is also possible.
Enjoy stunning views, get a great workout.
On a chilly December morning the tribe was prepared to make the North Peak via Mt. Olympia, this does give some great exercise. Diablo State Park tends to get really warm in the summer, hence winter, fall or spring is a great time to explore this park via its network of numerous trails. You don't want to be lost on the mountain, so good idea to carry a downloaded map or picture from the trailhead.
We started our day around 7:00 AM, heading towards Donner Canyon trail then onto the Cardinal Oaks Rd. Walking along this fire road, enjoying the wooded part of the mountain, from here we reached the Olympia Trail which will go through narrow paths and open towards a very steep slope. This is the access point to the peak, the clouds were rolling in and the winds started to pick up, the warm winter sun and the chilly wind made for some interesting combination. After a snack break here, we quickly moved towards North Peak, which runs down a narrow path into a saddle and then takes you back up. Tribe decided to take their lunch on the North Peak, as we go there the winds turned much stronger. The winds were so strong that we would take one step forward and take 3 steps back, it took up good amount of time to get to the peak. As we found a spot to grab our lunch, the gust of wind flew away with our sandwich before we could eat. Thankfully all the extra bars and trail mix we were carrying came in handy. In fact the steep slope towards the communication tower on North Peak was extremely difficult to traverse, both up and down that day.
On the way back we took the Prospect Gap Road to Prospect Gap, leading us back down towards the trail-head.
Learning's from the tribe - Carry extra energy bars, has come in handy for the tribe as mountain weather can be extremely unpredictable.