Morgan Territory to the West

 A wonderful September morning and we headed back out to one of our "hidden treasures".

Morgan Territory East Bay Regional Park.

Bailey is in "rehab" for a problem with his right front ankle.  A sports injury (tendinitis) from something he did about three weeks ago during a crazy dog hill run.  He had to stay on this 25 foot long leash for this two-hour and 6-mile hike.  For the month of September he is on the DL.  We have to prepare for pheasant season.

About 1/2 an hour into the hike, we stopped at the Morgan Backpack Camp for cooling dip in the water trough and a restroom break.  The East Bay Regional Park District is a first class operation in my opinion.  A very under utilized out door activity as there are thousands of miles of trails throughout the East Bay maintained by this organization.

We got a late start today and didn't start out until about 9:00am.  We entered the Highland Trail entrance which is exactly 7 miles from where Morgan Territory Road branches off from Marsh Creek Road out of Clayton.  It was already 76 degrees.

Made sure my Camelback was full of water as we headed up into the hills west of the only road that runs through this section of country.   Over the last few months we had explored to the east but this was our first excursion to the west.  

 

The views from Highland Ridge trail were spectacular.

Mount Diablo can be seen in most of these pictures.  The twin mountain peaks of Mt. Diablo are the highest points for hundreds of miles around.

Looking west we looked over the San Ramon Valley. To the far side of this valley is the Oakland / Hayward hills. On the horizon are the hills on the San Francisco Bay Peninsula.

In the lower right corner just over Chloe is a wild animal trap.  We came across three of these during our hike.

This shot just reminded me of "Mother Nature".

 The weather was perfect even though it was warm.  By the time we got back to the Jeep the temperature was pushing 90 and rising.

Water is VERY important on these walks.  Always have enough for yourself and your dogs and try and plan your trip having places the dogs can cool down.

24 hours after we did our hike a view of Morgan Territory, a picture from my house in Walnut Creek of fire.  Morgan Territory is on the south east side Mt. Diablo.