Hike to Murrieta Falls - 28 Feb 2009

This weekend should have been a backpacking weekend but it got cancelled because of the rain that was forecast for Sunday. The initial plan was to hike the Ohlone Wilderness Trail from Lake Del Valle to Rose Peak on the first day, spend the night at Maggie's Half Acre, and go down to Sunol's visitor center on the second day. 10 miles each day.
Instead, we decided to hike from Lake Del Valle to Murrieta Falls, and come back, which would be about 12 miles with about 4500 feet of elevation gain. No backpacking but still a pretty decent hike.

There were 6 of us (Fizzymagic who organized the trip, Calipidder, Drunken Marmot, Bthomas, Kendrah and me). We started shortly after 9 am.

To get to the Fall, we mostly had to climb two ridges: Rocky Ridge first, then go down about 600 feet to William Gulch, and then climb up Big Burn to Rowell Ridge. Both ridges were climbed at a relatively high pace and almost without any break. For sure, had I done this hike solo, I would have stopped every 300 feet. But it was good to feel challenged a little more than usual.

I really liked Rocky Ridge. The views were beautiful, and the shooting stars (wild flowers) abundant. We grabbed a cache on one of the hilltops before going down to the gulch We didn't break at William Gulch and instead, we directly attacked the Big Burn climb. It was tough, especially with the lack of breaks, but it allowed us to be over with the climb relatively quickly. Reaching the top of Big Burn felt very nice. The views were breathtaking. This ridge was totally dwarfing the Rocky Ridge that we had climbed earlier. We had great views of Mount Diablo, Brushy Peak, Livermore, Pleasanton Ridge, Monument/Allison/Mission Peaks, and as a bonus, the Sierra Nevada with its snowy tops.

The terrain on Rowell Ridge was mostly gently rolling hills. We quickly reached the top of the falls and while Fizzymagic stayed there to snap a few pictures, we climbed down to get the cache there. We also took a nice lunch break close to the water pool. The fall is not spectacular in itself, it's mostly just a tiny creek flowing between rocks,but it was a beautiful and relaxing setting.
Climbing out of this little secluded heaven was tough. There was a a path but it was still 100 feet (almost vertical) to climb.

We then hiked in some more up to get to a few other caches. Our turn around point was at 8 miles in. We were 7 miles from the trailhead, and had climbed 4000 feet so we knew we would be tired very soon (we still had about 1000 feet to climb). Bthomas and Kendrah decided to go for Rose Peak so only 4 of us were going back.

Walking back to the top of Big Burn was pretty easy even though we were tired at this point. I found the climb down Big Burn very difficult. I thought my legs would just stop working at any time. We climbed it down at a fast pace with no break. I really wished it would go up instead of down as every step was painful. Once we reached the bottom (William Gulch), we took a good break that my legs appreciated.

We still had to get out of that canyon, to the top of Rocky Ridge before another painful climb down to the trailhead. This last climb up was challenging for Fizzymagic and for me. But we took it very slow, one step after the other and we made it to the top of the ridge before we knew it. One last climb down, very difficult for the legs after so much hiking, and we were back at the trailhead.

In the end, we hiked 15 miles with about 5000 feet of elevation. As Calipidder mentioned somewhere, it's similar to going down to the Colorado River from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, and back up in the same day.
The weather was perfect for this. It was comfortably cool, it didn't rain on us, and most importantly there was no mud.

I really enjoyed the hike, the park, the views, and the company. I spent an awesome day. The only thing that could have made it better was to have actually backpacked to Sunol but that will be for another time. I really want to go back there again, backpacking this time. And the crazy me doesn't want to just go from Del Valle to Sunol. I am seriously thinking about hiking the full 28 miles of the Ohlone Trail, and this includes climbing up Mission Peak.

Many thanks to Fizzymagic for organizing such a great outing!

My photos are here.
Calipidder's photos are here.

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