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Trip
to Mt. Diablo
August, 1972
FILE: http://www.garsondesign.com/photos/1970-1979/1972/0800mtdiablo.htm
August, 1972
FILE: http://www.garsondesign.com/photos/1970-1979/1972/0800mtdiablo.htm
707 439-5323
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stevegarson.com
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07/04/72 • Steve turns 16
08/72 • Age 16 and 1 month - leave home. Go on trip to Mt. Diablo with high school friend Brian Running. I don’t come back home till a acouple of years later...06/74. Photos taken with a 16mm film Kodak Instamatic.
Looking east from Wildcat Peak to San Pablo Dam Reservoir and lands to explore beyond.
About a year or 2 before this I ran away from home, went through here, to Briones Regional Park and on to Walnut Creek. I went to a bank and withdrew all my paper route and lawn mowing monies. Fortunately the bank teller was suspicious and called the cops on me. A motorcycle cop trapped me on a overpass and called out my name - I knew the gig was up.
My dad had to come out to pick me up - I thought they were going to be really mad - but they weren't - they were really very peaceful about it all - I was kinda shocked. Maybe the cop had some words of wisdom to pass on. Can you believe my plan was to ride the bike and all my gear up to Laseen Park to become a "Ranger"? What planet was I on? Oh well, I did have big dreams.
Looking southwest toward San Jose?
I'm looking southeast to our next destination of Briones Reg. Park. Remember I had experience going here a year or 2 before by myself. I guess, because of that, Mt. Diablo wasn't so daunting of a destination.
A canteen break as we head down the hill to San Pablo Dam Rd. and the reservoir. We hitched after about 1-1/2 hours sitting against our packs and listening to the radio with some dudes who were fishing. We walked 1/2 way to Briones. Brian wasn't as conditioned as I was so he was getting mad and was saying he shouldn't have come along because he was getting tired.
Here I'm cooking over a sterno. This is the same Happy Valley Road in route to Layfayette. We got hungry so we stopped along the roadside. On top of my pack is my dish, salt, utencil set and little red transistor radio. See same image posted on Survivorman website. 040609
We got to Layfayette by a ride. We went to a supermarket and bought food and camping supplies. Went to a camping store and saw a painting by our art teacher, Mr. Fink! Went to a gas station, early before anyone else, to clean up, then to a laundry mat. Brian dyed his pack blue - I think he's getting into this journey!
1/4" below observatory is a hawk. After making a hitchhiking sign, being artists - it was very fancy - we sat by the freeway entrance to Walnut Creek. We got a ride by someone Brian knew, all the way to the park entrance! We walked about 500 feet more and got another ride, by some drunks from S.F. in a truck. Rode a swervy ride up to the top and then to "The Pines". Then we ditched them because we thought they were going to rip us off. What a scary ride up!!
This deer got brave and I fed him marshmellows - probably wouldn't do nowadays. He loved them!
Getting braver...
Really brave!
I learned the hard way bacuase next morning I found that they he had "scratched" the zipper of my pack open and got into some potato mixes that I had! Cute but beware.
Brian's mom dropped us off at the Hexagon in Tilden Park (where I later lived for a month or so). We stayed at the "Little Forest" for 3 days (just south of Wildcat Peak). We had rebuilt the "Little Forest" fort with an axe and stayed in my tube tent.
Then onto Wildcat Peak and the observation structure. Many times in the past my Mom, Dad, my sister Sue, Andy (our Peke) and I would hike up to this incredible view point. This is looking back west to Kensington Hilltop School and the bay area. On clear days you could see the Farallon Islands from here.
Brian Running was part Native American and a fellow artist. I believe that he was a senior then and was a very accomplished oil painter that mentored me at El Cerrito High. He was also a mutual, friend of my neighbor the Cain's - went to the Mormon "Family Home Evening" on monday nights. He actually lived downstairs in the cellar of their house for a time.
Me and my $30 pack bought with paper route money from the Ski Hut on University Ave. in Berkeley. Look how skimpy that sleeping bag looks. Adidas "hiking" shoes. Brian's pack at right.
Brian here preening. The strap on Brian's pack broke but we fixed it (which saved the trip). We had to cross illegally over government Nike base property to get down the hill.
Brian and another nice view of San Pablo Res. and my pack. Brian almost quit walking and hitching. At the last moment I stuck my thumb out and we got a ride to Briones. It saved the day! This was still back in hippy days so people actually picked up hitchhikers back then.
We stayed at a Briones shelter and gave each other the cold shoulder - but soon became friends sensibly and went thru the park to Layfayette via Happy Valley Road.
It took a while to remember what this was. It is along Happy Valley Road after the egg break. As we walked along we noticed quite a few hawks and turkey vultures. In the middle (not the sky but the land) is a black dot - a vulture - took 3 more photos but they didn't turn out.
We camped at Castle Rock Rec. Area. Lots of people camping, music. parties. After a week Brian bade farewell and I was on my own. Alone, but peaceful. I found a campsite back up the mountain. Not as many people but lots of animals. Deer came in to feed as it became evening as you can see in the photo.
This racoon came in next - he was even more agressive - I fed him M & Ms - he couldn't get enough of them.
Braver... that's him at post-it note arrow.
That's my dinner: rice-a-roni, cooking oil, hot chocolate and then my little red radio.
The next night I awoke slowly to the sound of a rattler near me. Kinda freaked me out when I flashed my light on him. It was the middle of the night - prob. no moon. So I packed up and went up a trail - saw black moving lumps - turned out to be trantulas out hunting.
So then I went in the middle of the road where I could hopefully see things better. But I came across another rattler in the middle of the road so back down the hill I went. I stashed my pack in an outhouse and slept in there.
Eventually I left Mt. Diablo and headed back home. I went back through Briones Park. I remember walking through in the early morning dew and sunrise listening to Janis Joplin on my red radio - "Windshield wipers slappin' time as Bobby sang the blues and I sang every song I knew..."
09/72 • Lived in Tilden Regional Park
• About the month of 09/72 I was in a beautiful hexagonal, open on 1 side, ampitheatre - with a fire pit in the middle. I slept inside with a good fire going. In the morning I would stash my stuff under some brush nearby, walk up the hill then down to the Chevron station on the Arlington in Kensington and wash up in the restroom and then do my paper route. Then catch the bus to El Cerrito High. At the end of the day I would do it all back in reverse.
10/72 • Lived in various fields in Kensington - a gully back behind Brian Lemmon's house - I would stash my pack there. I got my paper route back.
Then onto a large field next to the Young's house across the street from where I eventually moved to...on Beloit. I got tired of pickin' straw out of my hair so started asking my subscribers if they knew of any place cheap to stay.
11/72 • ??? Beloit Ave., Kensignton, CA. Moved into the house of one of my paper route subscribers. Deal was I would pay $5 a week and live upstairs and kinda look after his elderly mom. He lived downstairs. The place was a pig stye. Open food all over the counters. His mom was in her 60s - was a retired UCB math professor who was insane (supposely became that way after her husband died). She would only talk to me via a mirror in the bathroom - she would say - "who is that man?" A RN would come in once aweek to bathe her, etc. I just went about my business cleaning and fixing up the place. I was living in splendor compared to how I had been living. I had my own room upstairs that had a big window that looked out at a panoramic view of the bay.
I constructed a long bird feeder tray right outside the window and would watch the blue jays come and feed.
Eventually the son's money grabbing sister and her boyfriend came over to stay and things went bad. Almost got in a fight with the boyfriend one time when my good friend Russ was over. We were going to have to testify in court gainst them for our landlord. They even found my parents to complain to them - I guess that I was a minor. So eventually I had to go back home....
06/74 • Graduated El Cerrito HS • Go back home for 1 month
El Cerrito High Links
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