I've been looking around for some new "Spring Training" hikes and decided (almost on a whim) to go finally take a look at Mt Diablo. Somehow I've lived in the Bay Area for a decade and have never even driven up to the Diablo Summit.

Matthew Holliman had posted a route on summitpost (here) that looked intriguing- a loop hike that tagged Mt Diablo itself and 3 surrounding high points- Eagle Peak, North Peak, and Mt Olympia. (I opted to skip the class 3 scramble that he included in his route and took the slightly longer and slightly saner trail from North Peak to Mt Olympia)

I got the workout I was looking for- This may be the most brutally graded hike I've seen outside of the Sierras. There's stuff in Henry Coe and the Ventanas that comes close, but you'll not see anything like 7 miles of sustained uphill with this grade.

The weather was near perfect for hiking (though unfortunately whats good for hiking isn't good for visibility) and we are near the peak (of an admittedly miserable) wildflower season.



A clockwise variant of this route that included Mitchell Rock and Twin Peak can be found here