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Hiking Las Trampas Ridge
Feb. 13th, 2022 09:25 pmSaturday afternoon we went hiking at Las Trampas Regional Wilderness near San Ramon, California. It's about 43 miles from us, in the East Bay. It was an easy drive up there. It's not too far from a previous job I had. Fortunately that job is far enough in the past that I no longer feel like the drive is "like going to work". ;) We work our way over to I-680 North then exit at Crow Canyon Rd. to Bollinger Canyon Rd; then up Bollinger Canyon to where the road ends and multiple trails begin.
Las Trampas is a park we've visited several times before. In recent years it's been our Superbowl Sunday hike. Instead of watching the game we've gone hiking here. This is Superbowl weekend... but we're hiking a day early! We'll hike somewhere else this Sunday.
The drive out to Las Trampas had us concerned. As we crossed over the mountain pass on I-680 from the Bay basin to the inland Tri-Valley area we saw a lot of smog/haze in the sky. Would we have poor visibility in the mountains? Fortunately as we worked our way up through Crow Canyon to Bollinger Canyon the sky cleared rapidly.
From the trailhead at Bollinger Canyon Road's end there are two main ways one can go: up Rocky Ridge, or up Las Trampas Ridge. We opted for the latter as we've climbed Rocky Ridge at least 3 times before,. We've only hiked Las Trampas Ridge once, and it was cloudy that time so we weren't able to see all the views the ridge top offers.
Another point in favor of the hike up Las Trampas Ridge is that it starts with a gentle uphill slope, following Bollinger creek upstream. The Rocky Ridge trail starts with a brutal uphill slog following an old military road from when there was a Nike missile battery atop the ridge during the Cold War in the 1950s.
Rocky Ridge remains easily visible, though. It's just the other side of the little creek.
Just because the hike up through the canyon isn't the relentless uphill slog of the road to Rocky Ridge doesn't mean it's easy. It only looks easy, and that look is deceptive. We felt like it was kicking our butts. Part of that was the unusually warm weather. It was 80° (27° C)... in early February. We were hiking in shorts and short sleeved shirts!
At the back of the canyon the trail pivoted around to provide nice views of what we'd climbed so far. This, of course, was still the easy part of the climb. The next segment, to the top of the ridge, was steep but mercifully short. ...Short, as in only about 1/3 mile seemingly straight up.
Update: The adventure continues! Keep reading in part 2.
Las Trampas is a park we've visited several times before. In recent years it's been our Superbowl Sunday hike. Instead of watching the game we've gone hiking here. This is Superbowl weekend... but we're hiking a day early! We'll hike somewhere else this Sunday.
The drive out to Las Trampas had us concerned. As we crossed over the mountain pass on I-680 from the Bay basin to the inland Tri-Valley area we saw a lot of smog/haze in the sky. Would we have poor visibility in the mountains? Fortunately as we worked our way up through Crow Canyon to Bollinger Canyon the sky cleared rapidly.
From the trailhead at Bollinger Canyon Road's end there are two main ways one can go: up Rocky Ridge, or up Las Trampas Ridge. We opted for the latter as we've climbed Rocky Ridge at least 3 times before,. We've only hiked Las Trampas Ridge once, and it was cloudy that time so we weren't able to see all the views the ridge top offers.
Another point in favor of the hike up Las Trampas Ridge is that it starts with a gentle uphill slope, following Bollinger creek upstream. The Rocky Ridge trail starts with a brutal uphill slog following an old military road from when there was a Nike missile battery atop the ridge during the Cold War in the 1950s.
Rocky Ridge remains easily visible, though. It's just the other side of the little creek.
Just because the hike up through the canyon isn't the relentless uphill slog of the road to Rocky Ridge doesn't mean it's easy. It only looks easy, and that look is deceptive. We felt like it was kicking our butts. Part of that was the unusually warm weather. It was 80° (27° C)... in early February. We were hiking in shorts and short sleeved shirts!
At the back of the canyon the trail pivoted around to provide nice views of what we'd climbed so far. This, of course, was still the easy part of the climb. The next segment, to the top of the ridge, was steep but mercifully short. ...Short, as in only about 1/3 mile seemingly straight up.
Update: The adventure continues! Keep reading in part 2.
