13 Miles, 2604 ft Climb - Mitchell Canyon, Mt. Diablo

This is the gear - 2 hand helds of water, on the belt there's 2 water, 2 Gatorade, large pouch has sports beans, fruit snacks, a Builder bar and a Tiger Milk bar. Small pouch holds the map, ID, medical directive, and health insurance card.
Sunglasses, arm sleeves, shoes, phone, and you don't see it, but I carried the camera.
We left a map w/the sitter so someone knew where we were, with the instructions that if she didnt' hear from us by 3 to start calling someone.
(we left at 10:20)

A "before" picture in the front yard.

Mitchell Canyon Rd.

we will be heading up the valley between those two ridges

we have turned and are heading up the valley, it's all up hill from here to mile 7.
(well it's all been up hill till here, but now gets steep)

I was not expecting stairs....

feeling good here.....

still feeling good, but starting to work hard now.....

still working hard but feeling really good........

we knew we were getting close to the top as we had been doing switch backs for a while, and then we came around a switchback and saw a radiant opening....we made it to the top!

above we are taking a pic of the opening we just came out of, and below we have been running some rolling hills for a bit and have connected in to the Mitchell Canyon trail at Deer Flat.

legs after 2400 ft of climb and about 7.5 miles
All downhill w/some rollers now

above, we are heading to the canyon we run out of

After we reach the canyon floor, it's slightly downhill w/ a roller or two, then out of the park and onto trail along the road for 3 miles back to the house.

And then we were done!! It was pretty awesome. This is the first time I've mapped a route on the Mt., a serious route like this, and then headed out the front door and ran it. It's amazing w/computers and satellites how detailed you can view a route before you actually run it. I was nervous about the climb since we hadn't seen it or talked to anyone who's been back on that part of the Mt., but it was great. We didnt' run into any other people back there, just once we got to the top and started down we passed a few coming up.
I love having this Mt. in our back yard!!