2/28 - Valley Vista

It was a big group on this chilly, gray day before a much anticipated rain storm. 16 of us walked from the Valle Vista Staging area along the Kings Canyon trail until it began ascending. Then we retraced our steps and turned left on the Riche Loop (aka Meadow trail). http://www.ebmud.com/files/6914/3284/4664/south.pdf for a map. Many of the walkers knew nothing of the history of the area and were surprised by the evidence of long ago residences.The hike was about 2 1/2 miles. On our return to Moraga, most adjourned to CiCi Cafe for coffee and more fellowship.

So far (2:30) the rain has not made it to our area.

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2-21 Black Diamond

Just six of us today on what started as a cold morning and became a lovely winter day. We went up the stairs by the Greathouse visitors center, up Chaparral Loop to the junction with Manhattan Canyon Tr.; then to the top of the canyon and the junction with the Black Diamond fire road. When the trail began to descend we retraced our steps and had our lunch on the rocks looking down the valley to the Stewartville area. We returned down the fire road to the Rose Hill Cemetery and then on to the cars. Part way down we encountered a large herd of sheep with just two shephers and two dogs to control them (which they did very well). It was excedingly dry! There was evidence of the lack of water in the reduced size of the shooting stars. But we did see some flowers and there were patches of green. About 3.75 miles.

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2-14 Vargas Plateau

A baker's dozen of us took a Valentines Day hike in the newly reopened Vargas Plateau Regional Park in the hills to the east of Fremont. We split into two groups but covered much of the same territory. The larger group had lunch at the viewpoint and the smaller group ate at the rocky point. There were lots of birds! We saw plenty of hawks, but the only ones I could definitely identify were a red tail and a northern harrier. Also meadow larks (another hiker counted 37 in one flock), bluebirds, juncos and the usual crows. Mileage varied from 3-ish to almost 4 miles.

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2/7 - Crocket Hills

There were just 7 of us hiking on this lovely early spring day. We started from the staging area on Crockett Blvd and went up the Edwards Creek Tr to Wood Rat Tr (Dirca and Oso Berry). We went thru the tunnel under Cummings Skyway and walked SE as far as the picnic tables above Big Valley Trail. It was too windy there to enjoy our lunch break, so we back tracked to the pond and ate there, more or less out of the wind. We returned to the tunnel via Soaring Eagle Tr and descended to the parking lot via Crockett Ranch Tr. (Ribes) 5.15 miles

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