Black Dimond Mines Regional Park
Overall Rating: A-
Stats: 7.6 Miles, 4000′ gained/lost
Bill and I set out for Jim’s Place in Black Diamond Mines Regional Park. The area was once an active coal mine and company town. Jim’s Place is an historic miners dwelling carved out sandstone..a cave if you will, with a pretty large doorway, chimney vent, and built in shelf. Something akin to structures I dreamt about building in my youth.
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We started at the parking lot off Clayton Road and then headed up what Bill calls “2-mile road” – which is a dirt road used by ranchers, park district vehicle, mt bikers and hikers.
We were passed by a couple groups of bikers, some of whom started on the Antioch side, went up and over to Clayton, and then back again. This brought back memories for Bill and I as we once regularly road our bikes in these hills. But now we are happy that we are both fit enough to pull off a 8 miler on short notice.
At the top of the road we went through the side gate to continue along the Briones/Diablo trail, up hill, and eventually got up to the power towers….a visible landmark for many miles.
On the way up Bill talked about how the main road used to be open to the public and one could drive from Clayton to Pittsburgh ..and prior to that parts of it used to be a railroad that his great granddad worked on.
After enjoying view from our highest spot, we decided to head back down the way we came and correct a wrong turn we made to get to Jims.
Once we got to old shelter I barely recognized it, a pine in front had grown tremendously since I was last there (at least 15 years ago), obscuring the view, making feel somewhat mysterious.
From there we headed back the way we came. A pleasant day with good conversation and memories.
