"El Sombroso from Bald mountain PA on Mt U road. I wanted to red line the Barlow road as part of Mt U option off the Bay Area Ridge Trail. Easy strolling but not scenic, just a road. Had the Woods trail to myself until I ran into two guys with a dozer regrading a washed out section. Up higher the views were back with all the looping around to reach the takeoff point for El Som. On my way back to the car I thought I might have mindlessly passed the jct for Barlow road with my haste cruising along the Woods trail. Fortunately a few minutes later I realized I had jumped the gun unnecessarily " — Nimblefoot • Nov 21, 2023

"Bald and Mount U out of the Bald Mountain PA. A little cool and breezy but still shorts weather for this east coast resident. A speedy saunter up Mt U provide all the warmth I needed especially in the shady sections of the trail. Some knucklehead, most likely a car ascender, left an empty disposable water bottle on the west summit so I packed it out it. I thought I left “stupid” back in NY state but apparently it’s running loose from coast to coast. Today was the busiest I’ve seen the trail/summit on a week day, I’m assuming it’s do to coming food fest this coming Thursday, everyone is home from work and school. Bald mountain was a nice leg stretcher after running down Mt U. " — Nimblefoot • Nov 20, 2023

"Reached the Kennedy road TH at 8am and managed to get the last spot to park. Two other vehicles were already parked in the tiny lot with space between them but large enough to get the Camry in there and open a door. Red lined the Kennedy trail to where it junctions with the Limekiln and Woods trails then continued on to El Sombroso. This time I found an old jam jar with paper and pencils inside and a #6 on the lid on the edge of the opening near the undergrowth. An old canister/register I guess as it didn’t contain the usual suspects of a geocache." — Nimblefoot • Jul 26, 2023

"Original plan was to red line the Kennedy trail up to the Bay Area Ridge trail then head toward Mount U but the small parking area was already full. The hazards of sleeping in and getting a late start. Plan B became head over to Mount U road for a fast saunter up to the summit on the nicely graded and shady trail then saunter over to Bald Mtn after getting back to the car. This time I was able to hike the final 0.2 miles of the trail and visit the east summit. Last time the gate was closed as the trail was deemed unsafe so I had to head over to the parking lot then up to the west summit. There was construction on the Cube building going on with fences up so I couldn’t access the east summit. Nice view from Mt Hamilton to Mt Diablo but SF and Mt Tam were socked in. Bald mtn was an easy stroll out to a grassy hillock. " — Nimblefoot • Jul 24, 2023

"This was my 4th visit to this peak. The first was in February 2009 from the Del Valle side. Then an overnight backpacking trip in October 2010 from Sunol to Del Valle (the Giants win the pennant!). My 3rd visit was a 50K race from Mission Peak trailhead to Del Valle in May 2017 on a hot day. This time was a pleasant 20 mile hike on a beautiful day. " — khershey • May 20, 2023