On 6 May 2006 I did a 19.75 mile hike from Del Valle Lake to Mount Rose and back to Del Valle Lake.

Back in the 1980’s I ran in numerous 26 mile marathons, and a bunch of ultra-marathons; races greater than 26 miles. I did 50 kilometer races, 50 mile races, and the highlight of my ultra running foot races...in 1985 I did the WESTERN STATES 100 (pdf file), a 100 mile race through the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. I finished the WS100 in 26 hours and 53 glorious minutes.

One of the ultra marathon races I did in the 1980’s, was the Ohlone Wilderness Trail 50 Kilometer Race. It is a point-to-point race traversing the entire Ohlone Wilderness Trail, a 31 miles run on trails and fire roads. The Ohlone Wilderness Trail is located in the San Francisco Bay Area and it connects Mission Peak in Fremont with Del Valle Lake in Livermore. Since I did the race I haven’t been back on the Ohlone Wilderness Trail in about 20 years. So I figured it was time to visit the trail once again; this time I decided to hike part of the trail.

I got up at 4:30 a.m.; left Berkeley at about 5:30 a.m., and I was cruising through Livermore, heading for Del Valle, at about 6:05 a.m. I noticed a Peet's Coffee shop in Livermore, so I stopped for a quick caffeine infusion and then, totally awake, I arrived at DEL VALLE REGIONAL PARK around 6:30 a.m. By 6:40 a.m. I was on the trail. I started the hike with approximately 100 ounces of water in my backpack and I consumed every drop of water by the conclusion of the hike at 6:15 p.m. The round trip hike was 19.75 miles and had about 5,740 feet of climbing. It is a lovely desolate area with beautiful views. I just don't know why I waited 20 years to see the Ohlone Wilderness area again!

Satellite Photo Map of the Area with a GPS Tracked Route Superimposed

If you have Google Earth for Macintosh OSX or Windows XP/2000, you can view this hike, with 11 photos,in a 3 dimensional interface of Planet Earth. Simply download this very small KMZ file (OHLONE.TRAIL.KMZ.ZIP) to your computer, unzip the file and click on it. Google Earth is a free download; you can get it HERE.

Google Earth satellite mapping program for Macintosh OSX

GPS data converter by LOAD-MY-TRACKS

360º panoramic view from the summit of Rose Peak (3,817 feet). Thirteen separate digital photographs were "stitched together" to produce the panoramic image.

Scroll = = = = = > to see the complete panoramic image

Click on an image to see the full size picture

Additional digital photos GO HERE

Korean-Japanese photos from 1968 GO HERE

My return to Korea in 2003 GO HERE

Home Page GO HERE



The beginning of the hike, looking back at a part of the trail I just hiked	California Live Oak



On Rocky Ridge (2,426 feet). There will now be a rapid descent and then a climb up to the ridge in the distance	An illuminated dead tree standing alone on Sycamore Flat (2,000 feet)

Creek at Williams Gulch (1,890 feet)	This is the beginning of a 1.43 mile ascent; the steepest part of the trail	Up, up, up

		After reaching the ridge top there is more climbing ahead. This is Schlieper Rock (3,080 feet)

Schlieper Rock is named after Fred Schlieper, a silversmith at the Rowell Ranch Saddlery in the 1940's.	We are now on Rowell Ridge, named after Harry Rowell, who owned most of what is now the Ohlone Wilderness

This is Johnny's Pond (3,350 feet), named after John Fernandes, who worked in the Rowell Ranch slaughterhouse		The top of Mount Diablo, 29 miles in the distance, stands above the valley fog which is covering the San Ramon Valley and the Livermore Valley

Almost at the top of Rose Peak	There it is, Rose Peak. An unassuming and uninteresting looking summit (3,817 feet). This summit is only 32 feet lower than the magnificent Mount Diablo (3,849 feet)	It was 9.7 miles to Rose Peak. Now it's time to return to Del Valle Lake. The trail in this photo is heading into a Box Canyon and it also crosses the North Fork of Indian Creek (3,200 feet)

Another view of Mount Diablo. The ground fog is burning off, and Livermore is visible

	I took a little detour to view Murietta Falls. Oh well, not too much water flowing in May

The ridge on the east side of Mines Road	Del Valle Lake finally comes into view after almost 12 hours and 20 miles on the trail

Ohlone Wilderness Trail Hike

Del Valle to Mount Rose