WALNUT CREEK, CA – Before sunrise on July 7, a group of trekkers gathered in Walnut Creek, ate breakfast with city officials and Save Mount Diablo volunteers, and then set out to cross one of the toughest segments of a coast-to-coast relay.
Their route that day: over Mount Diablo and through the open spaces of Contra Costa County. Their mission: carry the America 250 Relay across the country on the American Discovery Trail, commemorating the 250th anniversary of the United States.
The relay is a genuinely massive undertaking. Participants travel by foot across all 50 states on the American Discovery Trail system, handing off in segments. Walnut Creek served as an overnight stop and launch point for the Mount Diablo crossing – arguably the most physically demanding stretch of the California leg, with several thousand feet of elevation gain and miles of exposed trail.
The City of Walnut Creek partnered with Save Mount Diablo to host the morning send-off. Mayor Kevin Wilk described it as a moment that “highlighted the natural beauty of our region and the significant role Walnut Creek plays in connecting people to the outdoors.”
And look, he is not wrong. If you live here, you know the open space is part of the deal. Heather Farm Park. Shell Ridge. The Iron Horse Trail. Mount Diablo looming over everything. The America 250 organizers did not pick Walnut Creek by accident – they picked it because it sits at the base of the mountain that defines the East Bay skyline.
The relay launched earlier this year and will continue through the summer, crossing into other states on a route designed to trace the original American Discovery Trail while building community events at each stop. Walnut Creek’s role was small in the grand scheme of a national relay – one morning, one breakfast, one group of hikers heading up a mountain – but it was also exactly the kind of moment that makes living here feel less like a suburb and more like a place with its own gravitational pull.
Save Mount Diablo, for its part, has been advocating for the preservation of the mountain and its surrounding open spaces since 1971. Their involvement in the relay is a quiet reminder that the trails people were trekking that morning exist because someone fought to keep them from becoming subdivisions.
The relay continues east. Walnut Creek’s part is done. But somewhere out there, a group of people is still walking, and they started their day here.
