As you all know, Mr. Awesome Boyfriend and I love to go on hiking adventures! This hike we found in a book called Tri-Valley Trails Hiking Adventures in the greater Livermore, Amador, and San Ramon Valleys by Nancy Rodrigue and Jacky Poulsen. We picked up this awesome book at Barnes and Noble. This is great for anyone who wants to know where all the great hiking trails are hiding. The best part about the book is that all the trails are mapped, rated from easy to hard and organized by region. I wanted a bit of a challenge and choose hike 12 East Side Loop in the Las Trampas Regional Wilderness. The distance is 6.7 miles that takes about four hours and there is an altitude gain of about 2500feet. However, this does come with a warning label: the first sentence is, “This is one of the most challenging of all the Tri-Valley hikes…”. They were totally right! The hike never takes a break… you are either going extreme up or extreme down. I will admit that hiking sticks would have been a good idea but we didn’t use them (lesson learned)! The park was super easy to find just take 680 to Bollinger Canyon Rd and it will dead end at the park entrance.
Turn left onto Chamise Trail and right when you get to Mahogany Trail. This leads into a shaded canyon and takes you to a cute wooden bridge. Be very careful on this hike because there are snakes and lots of ways to slip. If you get bitten or twist an ankle then, it will be very hard to get back to the car. This is a beautiful hike with lush plants and gorgeous sights!
You will then come to Trapline Trail (stay to the right) which will lead you out of the canyon. At the top of the ridge, Trapline intersects with the Las Trampas Ridge Trail turn right and enjoy the view!
This hike was great as far as having lots of shade and the wild flowers were amazing! Turn left on Del Amigo but be careful this is were it gets steep! Turn left when you see the small Virgil Williams sign. It is very small!
Continue onto Madrone Trail which again is super steep. This will intersect with Corduroy Hills Trail.
When the trail forks, take the footpath to the right and make your way up to Eagle Peak! This was a very hard climb but is so worth it for the view! It also has a nice little bench to rest and eat… mmmm…yummy cookies!
Return to Corduroy Hills Trail then turn right onto Chamise: this will lead you back to the parking!
Make sure to bring plenty of water, food, and clothing! I was so pooped! It was a hard hike but we both never gave up and finished strong! WHOOT! Below is a link to my sport tracker Endomondo. There you can see all my stats and a nice map of the hike!
http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/176363922/3524315
Be Safe have fun!
-girl in pigtails
You never know what is in your own backyard if you don’t look!
Girl in Pigtails 
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