Mott Peak: Avec les chiens, encore sans vache!

Briones Regional Park

Old Briones Road- Briones Crest- Mott Peak- Abrigo Valley

(4.51 miles)

It was great to get out and run today. I think if I hadn't, the puppies might have staged a mutiny. Between working a ton and having the street in front of my house repaved, the dogs haven't been out too much. If you have seen border collies after 2 days without running, you will know this is not a good thing.

I didn't want to go long today because of the whole knee situation, but this trail still provides a bit of workout for the short distance. Because it was a weekday, I parked inside the Bear Creek Entrance without paying (see other posts on Briones for free parking on the weekend). We started up Old Briones Road. This trail is basically flat for the first half-mile or so, winding through a meadow that had the youngest calf I've ever seen the last time I ran here. Fortunately, today the cows stayed off the trail and we had no encuentros de vaca. After the meadow, the trail veers left and climbs up to Briones Crest. This section of the trail is short but climbs probably 800 feet in a quick mile--enough to get your heart rate up. Once on top of Briones Crest, the views were once again superb. However, were I to suggest a run in Briones, I would say the views from this trail are better (these trails are also VERY easily combined).

On both sides of Briones Crest, just before Mott Peak, are two or three water sources named Snidicich Lagoons. I wanted to run this trail today to see the lagoons, and remembered when I got there that I actually saw them five years ago when I took a group of sixth graders backpacking. They stand out as little green oases in the middle of the parched grasses (otherwise known as my friends the foxtails). I'm sure a better ecologist than I could explain how they came to exist, and the different plants that grow around the stagnant water.

Up to the Mott Peak trail, then past some cows who eyed us from a safe distance and then down, down to Maud Whalen campground (where I took the sixth graders many moons ago). This is a great group campsite, by the way-- you can get permission to bring in one car laden with food and then everyone walks in from the trailhead. Running water and a fantastic fire pit (seating for close to 30 around the campfire--my students tried!) make this a great place to take kids. (In case you had 30 or so hormonally charged adolescents with whom you willfully chose to spend time in the wilderness. I'm just saying...)

After that it was back to the car by way of Abrigo Valley. Again, Briones Regional Park is one of the less-visited parks I have been to. Of course, I was also there at 8:00 am on a Thursday morning--not exactly the crush time for hikers, but I saw exactly one other person on the trail today, not counting the two horse trailers and truck that were driving in as we started. It continues to amaze me how trails so close to urban centers like the Bay Area can feel so remote.

Briones Crest: Sans Vache

Briones Crest

(Seaborg- Briones Crest- Old Briones Road)

(6.89 miles)

96.8 Fahrenheit today. At least, that's the Garmin reading of the situation. This makes me feel better, because Sunday's predicted temperature (as of right now) in Sunol is 93-- a whole THREE DEGREES cooler. This is great news, because today was hot. WAY hot. I'm now worried I'm going to go out too fast just because I want to finish before it gets ridiculously hot... like it was in Briones today.

Having said all that, today's run was a winner. No dogs today because I didn't know how much water there would be and I also didn't want to have to traipse around in the foxtails avoiding herds of cattle. (Of course, that means I saw very few cows... with plenty of space to go around the ones that I DID see!) 

Anyway, parked at the cheap spot outside the Bear Creek Entrance, although since it was a weekday, no one was at the kiosk and apparently I could have parked inside without paying. I followed the paved road toward the archery range, at which point I took the Seaborg trail to the right. (On the map I have at home it's called Homestead Valley, but the Briones brochure called it Seaborg.) This trail spent a brief moment on a relatively even plane, then began to ascend sharply once it entered an oak grove. 

Briones is not Marin, nor is it Tilden. Briones in the summer (probably like Mt. Diablo and Sunol, I'm sure) is HARSH. If you can cope with high temperatures though, or run earlier in the morning, Briones can be spectacular. At the intersection of Seaborg and Briones Crest, I went left, following Briones Crest and was treated to a series of postcard views of Mt. Diablo like the one above. Eventually the powers of the trail decided it was time for me to stop resting while I took yet another Mt. Diablo view as the trail dropped a bit below the ridge, only to climb up to a view of Mt. Tamalpais and the Bay in the distance. Admittedly, at this point I was rather hot and cranky, and rather less overwhelmed with the beauty of my surroundings than normal circumstances would dictate. 

And yet, continuing on Briones Crest Trail, the trail tipped over a ridge and suddenly I had a view of the Carquinez Strait and the Benicia Bridge with the delta spreading out into the distance. This picture does not do justice to the view--of this I am certain. This triumvirate of views added fuel to my rant about Tilden. Yeah, Tilden's great--but it does not have the quality of views Briones can claim. (Tilden's temperatures at 2:00 p.m. were probably more runnable than those today... I'll give Tilden that...) 

I will do this run again (maybe earlier in the day?), adding Mott Peak to the loop, but today I was feeling rather wilted and came down Old Briones Road, a fun, gentle descent back to the parking lot.

Overall? Great run. Unbeatable views. Perhaps an early morning (or not summer) run, but great training for Ohlone this weekend. Again, dogs are fine off-leash, but beware the cattle conundrum...

Bovine Belligerence, or Why I Hate Cows

Briones Regional Park

Pereira Trail- Briones Reservoir Viewpoint

(? 3?)

This run started out well. I parked on the road near the Bear Creek Staging Area entrance so as to avoid parking fees. I thought I'd do a nice hot run to get used to running in the warmer temperatures in preparation for Sunday. Great. The puppies were ecstatic to be out, I was going to do a new trail-- things were going to be marvelous.

I did see some cows skulking about off to the side as the trail turned away from paralleling Bear Creek Road, but I thought simply that it would lessen the bovine presence later on. I took the Pereira trail when it forked left from Deer Creek and ran up a really nice little steep section that immediately gave views of the surrounding hills. I thought "What great preparation for Ohlone!" and kept running. I even snapped the first picture on my way up-- its slightly blurry focus makes me think of an oil painting. It clearly illustrates spring's final moments, small patches of green quickly losing ground to dry grasses.

 

Right. Once on top of the ridge, I decided to head out to the Briones Overlook detour. The trail leads out to a point from whence one can see (huge shock) Briones Reservoir. There is a stone bench dedicated to Ivan Dickson, and the trail sign up to the overlook reads "Ivan Dickson Overlook," but it was marked "Briones Reservoir Overlook" on my map. Either way, lovely spot for a pause. As can be seen, the puppies enjoyed a quick rest as well. 

As we came back to Briones Crest, there was a cow standing in the middle of the road. I thought I'd just go over the hill (off the trail) to the left of the cow and continue on my merry way. Now, perhaps if I'd had a pair of the slightly funky, ever-so-stylish Dirty Girl Gaiters, this would not have been an issue. Or perhaps if I had been wearing longer pants. Gaiterless and shorts-clad, this was a horrible idea. Every single foxtail in existence jumped onto or into my shoes--enough that they crawled into my socks and began to hurt when I walked. Plus, there were a fair number of thistles lurking amongst the foxtails that managed to draw blood *and* make my legs itchy. Additionally, I have now taken the dog to emergency three times for foxtail issues; the last thing I want to do is take her in again. When we got to the top of the hill, I looked over and realized the trail and surrounding area was covered with cows. No getting around them. 

I'm sure someone will tell me at some point about how to deal with cows, how to get them to move when and if you want them to, but thus far, my methods have been unsuccessful-particularly with the dogs. Cows in Wildcat and now Briones do not like dogs and tend (in my experience, again) to run AT the dogs instead of away. I have been tempted to let the dogs go and see if instinct will do its work, but I think the EBRPD would not approve of amateur cow-herding. 

So in attempting to avoid the cows, we backtracked a bit and then started to take a short un-cowed connector trail to where Deer Creek met up with Briones Crest. All was well until we rounded the corner and found multiple cows on and around the trail AGAIN. At this point, I was done pulling nonsense out of my socks and I was done with cows, so I decided to turn around and run back... only to find the first group of cows had left their dark corner and were now scattered over the trail as well, necessitating a quick climb over a hill and through multiple foxtails once more. 

I might be back at Briones tomorrow though--it's probably the closest I can get to replicating Ohlone conditions without driving down the 680 AGAIN, and my run today didn't exactly last long enough to get used to the heat.

This was the start of a great run. Loved the overlook, hated the cows. Bring your dogs, have them off leash, but may you meet no cows....

Hot Trail, Happy Dogs

Briones Regional Park

Pereira-Deer Creek-Briones Crest-Abrigo Valley Rd (4.5 miles?)

After hosting a Rioja tasting party

last night, it was time to give the puppies some attention. I didn't want to run too far because we're running looooong tomorrow on the Ohlone Trail, but the border collies needed to move!

I parked by the side of the EBRPD Bear Creek Staging Area entrance, but still on Bear Creek road so as to avoid paying the entrance fee. From there, I ran up Deer Creek to Briones Crest. This led straight up to a rolling trail that offers 360° views as I ran along the ridgeline. The lack of foliage meant this was a very hot run however, and I would not recommend this

as a summer run, particularly if you are going to take dogs for longer than an hour. It's not even May and it was very warm already this morning. My running companions were panting two miles into the run. (This did not stop them from enjoying every minute of the run, however!)

Once off Briones Crest, the trail drops fast into the canyon, passing by two group campsites. In my former life as a middle school teacher, I took a group of 6th graders here once for a very successful beginning backpacking trip, and if you are ever looking for a place to take a group of kids on an overnight, this is a wonderful option. We stayed at Maud Whalen and from the look of Wee-Ta-Chi this morning, I think MW is the better campsite.

Again, this run might get very warm in the summer--I would keep it as a spring or fall option, unless I was training for a race in a hot climate. Briones is a great place to run with dogs though--they can be off leash if they are under voice control, making some very happy dogs today. Neko even found a marshy pond to jump into just before we got into the car. Fun. Smelly wet dog in car.

As a final note, one of my favorite blogs has a much longer description of "Brionesland" as he calls Briones. Read it for some history about and gorgeous pictures of this (yet again) underutilized East Bay park.