Week 4 - Hike 1: Sibley Volcanic Preserve

On Saturday morning, my husband, my 2-year-old son and I took a hike at the Sibley Volcanic Preserve in the East Bay Regional Park District. It was a beautiful warm day, and the trail was quiet when we got there. It was early, and the main trailhead was completely blocked off for construction (scheduled to be complete by November 21). We do this hike often, and we usually start to the right of the visitor center/bathrooms (facing them). This is a paved fire road up to the water tower. Its pretty steep actually.

We started to the left of the bathrooms* on the paved trail (Loop Trail), which was less steep, and walked the .25 mile up to the Round Top trail. (Make sure you get on the Round Top Trail, because the trek up to the water tower is an ass kicker). The Round Top Trail is not paved but it's broad and reasonably flat. Although its not gorgeous this time of year because the grass is all dead and brown, it was cool and moist, and you can see plants starting to spring back into life. One thing I love about these meadow hikes in the fall is how they can seem like spring hikes, with the grass and wildflowers coming in.

When Round Top meets up with the Volcanic Trail, you can either go right and start back around the loop, or you can go left to wander along that Trail. If you do that, when you are ready to head back, you turn around and go back past the Round Top Trail and go on the Loop Trail.

There is marked lookout where you can view Mt. Diablo and see a wierd labyrinth that people maintain below. If you are pregnant, don't go down there; it's very steep and the trail is loose rocks. Back on the trail, you will face a fork in the trail. Left takes you down to the labyrinth, right takes you up the trail. It gets a little steep here, so take it easy. Once you get to the top of the hill, you will start a slow descent. This uphill and descent make this hike slightly harder than just a walk in the park. The descent is not steep, but the trail has a lot of loose rocks. A few years ago, I had to help an older woman through this area because she wasn't feeling to sure-footed. If you feel unbalanced, put your hand on the shoulder of your companion in front of you. If you fall, fall on your butt. But you won't fall, because its not that steep.

After the descent, we walked through light forest, back to the paved road. We took the road down even though it was closed. It was less steep coming down than I remembered from previous hikes.

This hike is a perfect hike at almost any time during a pregnancy. There are only two places where you will need to go slow, if you are at a stage in your pregnancy where everything goes slow. Maybe I will have to revisit this hike when I am further along. It took us about 90 minutes to do the hike, but part of that is attributable to the molasses-slow pace of a two-year-old examining every rock and stick he sees. When he was riding in the pack, I felt like I was getting a good amount of exercise. We shared 1 Nalgene bottle of water, and that was enough. My cell phone got reception up there too.** Dogs are allowed under voice control (i.e. offleash).

*The womens' bathroom is large and clean, and has a flush toilet. It can get stinky later in the day, so if you feel nauseous, be prepared to hold your breath.

** Not that I had anyone to call. I just figure that it's good to know if your cell is going to work on a trail.