The East Bay Regional Park District has a hiking challenge each year. I did the 2014 challenge, the challenge is a set number of hikes/walks designed to get people exploring a large cross-section of the district’s parks and enjoy everything that goes along with it. The challenge is free and you get a free T-Shirt and pin when it is completed. The hikes are broken up into difficulties: Easy, Moderate, Challenging. As an avid hiker the Easy ones are basically strolls toddlers and old folks can do, moderate are for an average casual hiker, and the challenging ones are for people who have a decent amount of stamina. To be more specific, even the challenging can be handled by any Boy Scout or weekend backpacker with ease. I will create a separate project page showing the details of the challenge as a guide for people who read these posts later.

This week I chose one of favorite parks in the entire East Bay Park district: Briones. This large park is nestled between many East Bay suburban communities. It has multiple entrances and provides a host of activities for any park goer. One of the things Briones is known for is its spring wild flowers. With the drought, I wasn’t going to get a better time to check them out, as most East Bay hills quickly turn from green to brown in a matter of weeks. It also so happens, there was a Challenging Hike for the park. After my less than challenging hike last week, I was hoping for something more strenuous. Looking at the trail map it was pretty clear this hike would be a tad more trying.

The hike is a seven mile simi-loop that cuts between Pleasant Hill and Lafayette and down into a beautiful valley. The main feature is well-worn rolling hills to provide ample cardio. The trail straddles residential areas, with paths to city many open spaces, so even on a Monday you can expect runners, bikers and dog walkers along the trail. I gave myself four hours to complete the hike, I arrived early with the park entrance filled with cars from the high school across the street.

I quickly got my pack on and heading to the trail avoiding parents as they dropped off kids. The trail starts off by sending you right into the hills, taking you pass an equestrian camp and outlets to residential backyards. One strange feature had me stumped, overlooking some houses below.

Once you reach the top crest you can look back and see Mt. Diablo to the east.

It was also an overcast morning, I would have to wait to really see some flowers bloom. As I turned my head the other direction I got a good look at the rolling hills I was about to traverse.

As you can see the trail is well worn and undulating to say the least, as I traveled a few trees stuck out and begged to be photographed.

You will notice one photo looking a bit funky; I decided to create some HDR images for fun.

The first quarter of the hike had been mostly leisurely, with quite a few people around, but as I got deeper into the park I noticed fewer and fewer folks, I had a feeling things were going to get a bit more difficult. Once I reached the point of departure from the Lafayette Ridge Trail I was excited for a change of pace.

If you can’t tell, the post says Buckeye Trail, which descend into the park proper, what I would find at the bottom I didn’t know. I did though develop an impending sense of what must go down must come up. Beyond the dive into the valley below, I got some a cool shots of busted farm equipment and overgrown fences.

When I finally reached the bottom, I was greeted to an unexpected forest and still active brook.

I couldn’t help myself at this point, I started frantically clicking my camera taking pictures of beautiful surroundings.

In addition to the lush landscape the valley offered, a vast array of sounds, from moving water to leaf rustling, there was a constant cacophony bird noises. Sticking out was hawk and eagle calls, to two competing turkey families gobbling at each other from opposite sides of the valley. As I made my way around the loop I came to the beginning of Springhill Trail and the challenging part of the hike. As I looked up at the hills I had to climb, I put my headset on, my head down and started the ascent. The music I chose for this hike was the rock band Mimicking Birds from Portland Oregon. They have a great ethereal quality, with creative lyrics spanning love, astronomy, and social issues.

As I was huffing and puffing I did take some pictures on the way up, including a vulture group with a airplane.

After much complaining I did reach the top of trail and rewarded myself with this shot.

It was at this point I was in the home stretch. It was noon and still the sun was having a hard time breaking through the clouds, but it didn’t stop the hill sides from beginning to open up with color.

Even with the poor lighting I was able to gather quite the assortment of flowers and plant images on the hike, this image gallery is in no particular order taken all along the hike.

 

As I made my way back, people started to reappear with there dogs, children, and bikes; I let out a sigh knowing the journey was over, but at least I had a lovely shower waiting for me around the corner.

If you want to see the other 200 unedited images I took on this hike follow the link below…

Briones Hiking Challenge 2015 Image Gallery