San Pablo Reservoir down below. The other side is off limits to hiking and is a pretty untamed chunk of wilderness, considering it's surrounded by a million people.

Looking North to some of the best (and steepest) parts of the hike.

I call this hike "Harri's Loop" because one day a very affable fellow named Harri introduced himself to me and gave me a grand tour, including a secret swimming hole and tequila stash (!!!). Harri said these landscaping remains gone wild and evidence of a sanitarium that used to be here in the 1920's.

The 1983 El Nino winter mudslides permenantly cut off many visitor access roads from Richmond, and nature is slowly reclaiming them.