Think Little


Last Sunday we chose a trail run around the perimeter of the Briones Reservoir. The trail is about thirteen and a half miles of gently sloping ups and downs through grassy fields and oak trees, with some openings into valleys with views of the delta to the north.

My legs felt leaden and heavy, and it was warm out. There were clouds of black flies in some of the more shaded sections along the trail, and a sign warned of ticks. We had to choose something different this time, because I could not handle a third weekend in a row base to summit run of Mt. Diablo. But just the same, every so often, there to the east, looming, we could see Mt. Diablo.

The reservoir is just east of Tilden and we could just make out the ridge where Inspiration Point meets Wildcat Canyon Road, where the day before we had walked from that parking lot on a grassy East Bay MUD trail down probably fifteen hundred feet to San Pablo Dam road.

We were sometimes on part of a contiguous stretch of trail that starts at Inspiration Point in Tilden, then runs alongside the Briones Reservoir, through Briones Regional Park, through downtown Walnut Creek, up to and through Mt. Diablo state park -- and beyond, to somewhere east of Antioch.

What if we were to walk from Tilden to Mt. Diablo, and camp there, surreptitiously, in the shady Juniper campground -- where we had discovered that the park rangers had not shut off the running water, in spite of the campground closure due to Shelter in Place. Would we be able to hike two 30- mile back-to-back days? Would we draw suspicion? Would it be worth it? Would we get caught?

--
Think Little by Wendell Berry from A Continuous Harmony: Essays Cultural & Agricultural reprinted in the Whole Earth Catalog 1969

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