Trip Report: Ohlone Trail Ultralight Overnight
May 1 - 2, 2004

By Steve Sergeant

Leader: Steve Sergeant
Participants: Magnolia Pitiquen, Joerg Lohse, Jim Sweeney, John Wilie, Bill Coffman, Ksenia Egorova

The Ohlone Wilderness Trail runs 29 miles from Del Valle Regional Park to the Mission Peak trailhead in Fremont. It covers a varied terrain from dense oak forests to dry grassland, from moist valleys to hot and dusty dry hillsides, and rocky peaks. In order to complete this trail on a two-day weekend, we needed to travel light and sustain a minimum 2.3 mph while hiking. I recommended that participants keep their base pack-weights at 12 pounds or less.

Due to my own unexpected delays, we met at the Del Valle trailhead 30 minutes later than I had planned, however, everyone was ready and eager to hike, and after a brief review of each person's gear and a discussion of the trip's ground rules, we were hiking only ten minutes later than planned. Based on my perception of Joerg's relative level of experience and his familiarity with the trail, I selected him as my point, or front, hiker. I led from the rear, where I could keep track of anyone who fell behind.

The temperature was rising into the 80s. The beginning of the trail is a dirt fireroad, presenting an often steep climb from the 800 ft elevation parking area, to the 2,080 ft summit at Sycamore Flat. Shortly before the summit, we stopped at Boyd Camp for our first break.

From the summit at Sycamore Flat, the trail descends rather quickly into William's Gulch. The seasonal stream flowing there provided us with our first on-trail opportunity to refill water supplies. After a break just long enough to deal with water, we began the ascent to Schlieper Rock. The trail is narrow and almost overgrown at first, and avoiding the poison oak was challenging.

Due to differing abilities, our party became separated, but regrouped at Murietta Falls. The falls were dry, therefore, not very interesting, so we continued hiking the next 0.46 miles to Stewart's Camp, where we refilled our water again and had a second lunch break at 4 PM. A group of other backpackers were already at the campground. Some of them were fascinated by our ultralight style, others were politely derisive. I'm certain, at any rate, that we entertained them.

About 20 minutes later we were hiking toward our planned cooking/dinner spot at the crossing of the North Fork of Indian Creek, about a mile before reaching our campground. Cooking on the trail is a through-hiker technique I planned to use, but unfortunately, it was already 6 PM, and we didn't want to arrive at our campsite after dark, so we pushed on instead. Cooking at the campsite, as we resigned to do, goes against the stealth-camping techniques favored by long-distance hikers.

The sun was just setting over the San Francisco Bay when we arrived at our campsite. We refilled our water supply and began cooking. Joerg and John opted for cold food to meet my base pack-weight recommendations. The rest of us cooked our meals. Afterwards, I completed the set-up of my shelter, consisting of a poncho tarp, mylar ground cover, and a head-and-shoulders-covering mosquito netting sack. Two sticks, found there in the campsite, provided the vertical support members. Bill and Ksenia brought a tent, Joerg and Jim used bivy sacks, and John and Magnolia slept "under the stars."

On Sunday morning I awoke just before the sun rose over the hill, and I began cooking my breakfast. Everyone else was up within a few minutes, and we seemed well on our way to an early start. There were delays, however, and it was 8:30 AM before we were all on the trail, climbing 400 ft and 0.4 miles to see the spectacular panorama from Rose Peak.

We gradually descended from the 3,817 ft Rose Peak toward the backpack camp in the Sunol Regional Wilderness (1,500 ft). The scenery was quite different from the section east of Rose Peak. We were hiking on a high, relatively dry, mostly treeless fireroad on the south slope of a ridge. Craggy igneous rock formations appear along the trail, as do several dry, but forested creek beds. This section of the trail crosses land owned by the San Francisco Water District. If this land is a city water supply drainage, then it's interesting that they allow it to be so heavily grazed by cattle!

The temperature rose quickly, making me drink about a liter of water per hour. I trailed behind the others with Magnolia. Her pack weight was comparable to everyone else's, but she is petite, which means the ratio of her pack-weight to lean-body-mass was greater for her. Going at her pace, I worried that we would be unable to retrieve our cars before the gate at Del Valle was locked.

As Magnolia and I descended from the Sunol Backpack Camp, climbed up to the Cerro Este Ridge, and descended again to the McCorkle Trail into Sunol Headquarters, we discussed options, and she decided to wait at the Sunol Wilderness Headquarters while the rest of us finished the hike. Afterwards, her carpool partner would drive her car back to get her. We met up with everyone having lunch at park headquarters, and 15 minutes later we were on the trail again, leaving Magnolia behind to relax for the rest of the afternoon.

We climbed Mission Peak together as a group, stopping for short breaks at the end of each of three shady sections before longer, sun-baked sections. We stopped for water at a faucet just below the peak, then charged to the top. We took a short break at the peak in order to breathe it all in and grab a snack, and then trotted quickly down the three mile fireroad to the Stanford Avenue parking lot. We were racing against the clock. As it turns out, we made it to the end of the trail in plenty of time. Our hiking time from Sunol to Stanford Avenue was about 3 hours, 35 minutes. My wife, Jean, was waiting for us with a gallon of Gatorade.

I think all of the first-time ultralighters learned a bit about techniques, and a lot more about gear on this trip. Everyone got a good work-out in preparation for more ambitious fast & light hikes later this season.