We left Ken and Marcia’s fine hospitality to tackle Mt. Diablo, our first real climb of the journey. Near the start of the climb we encountered two women on horseback who invited us to their nearby ranch for lunch. We appreciatively declined. There was a time in our younger days of long distance hiking when we would accept any trail magic detour, with confidence in our youthful bodies to get back on track as needed. I had no such confidence in the early stage of our journey to reboot our lives and brain health.
Continuing on turned out to be the correct decision. A steady rain mixed with the natural clay of the Mt. Diablo State Park trail, plus the abundant addition of horse manure, formed a trail glop I have not seen before nor since. Imagine the impact of wet snow on improperly waxed cross-country skis. We either slip-slided our way along the trails or the glop started to attach and build up on our boots, causing frequent stops to declog them. The grade of the climb was easy; the trail conditions kicked our butts.
We arrived at Antioch into the evening of the next day, later than planned. Ky called our previous hosts out of concern and they assured her that likely the trail surprised us and we would still get there. Either they were astutely aware of the unique trail conditions under a steady rain, since they were experienced hikers from the area, or they were going from the image of our packs and my bum left foot when we left their house.
While in Antioch we learned of yet another major rainstorm coming. We combined the two 16 mile days we planned into one, hiking for the most part along a levee by the Sacramento River, in order to take a rest day in Locke during the storm. This became the longest mileage day of our journey and the worst one for my foot, confirming that distance instead of weight would be the bane for this unusual injury.
A few kindness firsts occurred in Antioch. For the first time we were taken out to dinner by strangers who met us. When we stopped at a 7-11 while hiking through town, the proprietors became the first business to comp us food. The combined Community Presbyterian and First Congregational Church of Antioch became our first church hosts for spending the night.
Our stay in Locke added to this list the first community garden and community meal we experienced. Locke started out as a Chinese enclave, created for workers in the fields by the levee. Now artists and artisans inhabited the quaint town. The community meal was a small, informal affair of neighborhood townsfolk gathered around a fire and sharing their home cooked wares. We humbly contributed a large batch of our trail mix, which actually turned out to be a hit among the artisan locals.
We ended our second week in Sacramento, where my talk to a Lions Club during our third rest day became yet another first for the hike. My original goal for these Lion Club talks was to share tales of kindness and community from previous hikes, but two weeks in and already I had material from the current journey we were on. We stayed with the president of the Lions Club our first night in Sacramento and with a church secretary that Ky met on the second night.
Cindy had no physical problems that second week with either the Diablo climb or the 32 miler. I had problems with my foot, Ky with an allergic reaction to a bee sting, but the one person of greatest concern was doing fine. Continuing rain also created problems those first two weeks and would continue to do so as we hiked through California.
