April 28th, Mission Peak Trail (7mi,2530 ft)

We were charged up to take on this new challenge.Based on last week's experience with the hot weather we decided to leave early  by 6AM. Some of the members of our team dropped off this time considering the time it takes & difficulty level. So, I would say this time it was a couples only hike. I also tried as many ways as I could to avoid Mission Peak Trail but ended up going along.. Somehow I had a feeling that the Mission Peak Trail was not as scenic as Easy Bay Trails. But that's not the case. Even though for much of the hike there wasn't any shade we didn't feel the heat as we had started early. I had always heard though friends how popular this hike is & now I am convinced & motivated to do it one more time especially after seeing a 75 year old man hiking to the summit. The last stretch was a bit hard but we had no major issues in reaching the summit. We took 15 minutes break  to eat a light breakfast.

Time -2.50min
Difficulty - 7/10

Taking a shot

Beautiful wild flowers

Mission Peak from where we are

Scenic View

Trio enjoying the views

April21st, Las Trampas Ridge Trail (4.28mi)

It was a very sunny day. We should have started earlier to take advantage of good weather.But we started at 8.15AM instead, by that time it was already very hot.  This time we were well equipped with knee braces and hiking poles etc. While going to the peak, there was very little shade. Through out the hike we had very beautiful views of the Bay & Mt. Diablo. While coming we took another route along the creek which had very good shade. But at the end of the hike everyone was tanned :)

Time-2.03
Difficulty-5/10