This is what happens when the weather is crappy for every single weekend for a month at the first sign of sunshine you rush out into the outdoors to go hiking. I made the fateful decision to have us go explore some waterfalls out in Ohlone Wilderness. The weathermen predicted some morning drizzle followed by afternoon sunshine, I want new weather guessers.
Ohlone Wilderness stretches from Sunol in the west to Del Valle reservoir in the east just south of Livermore. It’s so green this time of year out in the foothills that it reminds me of the Emerald Isle, Ireland. The initial plan was to get up early and get in 12-15 miles hit the waterfalls and be back before dark. This was not to be… The weather was initially cooperative hiking up from the reservoir. Its a steep and brutal climb out of the valley to the first ridgetop and it was marked by stretches of terribly sticky mud. Just before the ridge there are 2-3 backcountry campsites with a dilapidated pit toilet. The views back to the reservoir and onto Livermore are great and they should be because you just climbed over 2000′ to get there. Its probably better to wait until early spring when this is all dried out and try a west to east weekend trip across the Ohlone Wilderness.
After reaching the ridge you follow the ridge south and then drop into another much more remote valley. At this point the weather turned crappy and it started to rain. At the bottom of the valley there is a stream crossing, most days this wouldn’t be a big deal but with the torrential rain the previous night the stream was unusually high. There isn’t a good crossing to be had anywhere near the trail so we opted to take off our shoes and socks and not get soaked boots. We can attest the creek was quite cold and it made for a miserable afternoon. The only nice thing was that I had remembered to bring my new camping towel so we had dry “happy” (relative) feet.
At this point its another brutal trek up the hill to the top of the ridge. With a quick break in the rain we found some shelter and ate a brisk lunch. At some point the clouds came in and reduced the visibility to less than 1/8 mile and the accumulating rain turned the trail into a stream. Checking the GPS I figured it was another mile just to the ridge and we knew we wouldn’t be able to see a darn thing so we agreed to high tail it back to the car and warm up.
One more quick creek crossing and some cursing about cold feet up the hill and down the unbearably steep approach to the reservoir and we were back at the car. It was only 9.5 miles but even with rain gear we were soaked, cold, and miserable. Lesson learned to take a closer look at the weather report before venturing out into the Ohlone Wilderness.
Distance: 9.2 miles
Elevation: 3700 feet