Woodson Mountain (via Fry-Koegel Trail)

A sliver of a moon hung in the eastern sky as I pulled to the side of the road. San Diego was under an extreme heat warning, so I needed to have a very early start to attempt to beat it. I wanted to try the Fry-Koegel trail for this attempt up the summit, having done the other two routes to the summit. If you ever drive along the 67 and see a few cars near the intersection with Archie Moore Road, that is where you should park if you want to use the Fry-Koegel trail. Otherwise, continue on a short bit to park with everyone else who will summit via the Service Road. I pulled over just past the guard rail and parked. As expected, there was no one here. In fact, I only saw two cars near the other trailhead. I gathered my gear, turned my headlamp on, and set off. Besides hoping to reach the summit, my other goal was to keep my pace and exertion level at a reasonable level. The trail initially skirts past a collection of backyards. I would occasionally look back to view the changing sky as we drew closer to sunrise. There was an occasional hoot from an owl to break up the silence.

The trail kept climbing up the north side of the mountain until I reached a fork in the trail. To my left was the old trail, and to my right the new route. Since either route would be new to me, I opted for the old trail. About 1/2 mile later the trail linked up with the trail you would use coming from Lake Poway. The sun had almost risen over the mountains as I now headed eastward and I grabbed a few photos of the first light spilling across the landscape.

The main draw for this hike is the Potato Chip, a piece of granite hanging free that folks love to climb upon. In contrast to the almost Disneyland-like lines which are frequent, I was alone. I snapped a few photos but skipped going onto it. The summit was still a bit further, so I strolled on. I went over to the true summit, just to take a look. I certainly wasn’t planning on scrambling up that summit block either. I pushed the rubber tips onto my trekking poles before I headed down the paved service road.

I was now starting to see folks making their way up. The temperatures were already climbing, so I was glad to be heading back down. The steepness of the road did bother my foot a bit, but it was manageable. The real test will be later today and how it feels then.

I tossed my gear into the car and carefully pulled on the 67 and headed home. When I started the hike, the car said it was 64°, as I sped away, it was now 82°! The entire hike was 5.4 miles in 2:35 and had 1,475 feet of gain.

I am an avid peak bagger, sometimes backpacker, and former sea kayaker living in San Diego. In 2019, I became the third person to complete the San Diego 100 Peak Challenge. Not stopping with that accomplishment, I set my sights on the harder San Diego Sierra Club 100 Peak list, which I completed in 2021. In addition, I have conquered several Six-Pack of Peaks challenges (SoCal, San Diego, Central Coast, and Arizona-Winter). Beyond attempting the San Diego Sierra Club 100 Peak list a second time, I am looking forward to exploring new summits and new adventures across the southwest.

Ramona Grasslands

After summiting Volcan Mountain yesterday, I knew I should keep my trail time to something more on the mild side, and Ramona Grasslands seemed to fit the bill nicely. I decided to try this hike with the dog.

The marine layer had already burned off, but a good breeze kept the temperatures nice and comfortable. Rocky was not on his best behavior, so a lot of corrections were needed as we strolled down the wide trail. We passed a few others out enjoying the area but had a lot of the preserve to ourselves.

I opted to do the longer loop, stopping at the picnic benches for a quick break in the shade and some water for Rocky. A few flowers still dotted the sides of the trail.

Once back at the trailhead, a ranger had set up a display about various wildlife. Turned out he was the same ranger from Barnett Ranch and he remembered me. We chatted some before I bid farewell. A nice Sunday stroll of about 2.75 miles in 1:02.

Volcan Mountain

Today was going to be a real test of my foot. I have to admit, I was nervous. It had been almost a year since I had done any real hiking and today’s hike up Volcan Mountain was going to be my longest and highest effort. My primary goal for the rest of 2023 is to try to complete several Six Pack of Peak Challenges. Ted pulled up to my house just before 7 am, and I tossed him the keys to the Subaru so he could make the hour-long drive to the trailhead. I did not want to over-exert my foot by driving. The drive was uneventful–the familiar road passing quickly by. I still can’t believe they haven’t finished rebuilding the McDonalds in Ramona yet. When we arrived at the trailhead, there were only about 4 cars parked along the road. I was a bit surprised that there were so few cars, but a quieter summit is always welcomed. We gathered our gear and set off. After a quick bio-break at the porta-potties, we passed through the ornate gateway and the hike began.

I had thought that my hike on Volcan Mountain back in 2022 was when my plantar fasciitis became an issue. Turns out I was off by a couple of weeks, it was actually when we hiked Santa Ysabel East, which is just a few miles away, that the injury occurred. Nevertheless, I was going to be pushing my foot and my fitness on this hike. The well-groomed dirt road quickly gained elevation and I could feel my heart begin to beat faster. This was going to be my 7th time climbing this peak, so I was quite familiar with what lay before me. My heart kept pounding away while my lungs kept working overtime. We opted to stay on the main road and not use the Five Oaks Trail like we normally do. The foot was doing well up the steep grades, each step closer to the summit. I pushed through the tougher sections, knowing that an easier section was just over the rise or around the bend. Soon, we passed under the pines, and the open meadow near the summit came into view. I knew that in a few minutes, I would reach the summit!

I sat in the shade on the picnic bench next to the abandoned aerial navigation tower and enjoyed my well-earned rest. After a bit, it was time to set off back down from the summit. In many ways, this was the bigger test of my foot. We stopped off at the actual benchmark and grabbed a few photos with the summit signs and one with my Six-Pack-of-Peaks tag. One down, five to go!

The weather was near perfect, with nice temperatures, a light breeze, and fairly clear skies. More importantly, not a lot of bugs. The descent went well as we retraced our route and a few more folks were making their way up toward the summit. The nice thing about descending was I was no longer breathing so hard that you could hear me all the way in Julian.

Soon we were back at the car. It was still too early for a sandwich at Dudley’s or a pint at Calico Cidery, so we headed directly home. During the hike, I purposefully did not look at my tracker, but now that we were done I wanted to see how long it took. Back in 2022, Ted and I did this hike in just over 2 hrs. (using the slightly longer Five Oaks Trail). AllTrails reports the average time for this hike at 2:41. We clocked our active hiking at 2:11! I honestly did not believe it. This really made me feel a lot better about the whole journey.

Black Mountain (via Miner’s Ridge Trail)

After taking a break for the 4th of July, I decided to test my foot with a bit more of a challenge—hiking Black Mountain. Since it was late afternoon, I opted to start from the Miner’s Ridge Trailhead. The trail would mostly be on the east side of the mountain, so I had some shadier sections to enjoy. I pulled into the empty parking lot, did some stretching, and then grabbed my gear. The trail starts off nice and mellow before beginning its climb toward the summit. The last time I did this route, I took a side trail, which I later discovered was closed, so I stayed on the main trail until it connected with the service road.

Some new emergency signage had been added along the way, and what caught my eye was they were using What Three Words (https://what3words.com/) to assist in the location finding. So far the foot was feeling ok as I made my way to the summit. Once there I felt good about the progress so far. A young couple sat together on one of the benches while a mountain biker sat alone on the other. I sat on the end, giving my foot a well-earned rest. He turned to me and asked, “So, how long did it take you to get up here, 30 minutes?” I decided to check my actual time, 2.2 miles in 1:03 (actually not too bad), and replied with my time, noting I started from the Miner’s Ridge Trailhead. Inside, I was like “WTF! 30 minutes? What fantasy land are you living in? Just shut up and go back to riding your e-bikes and leave us hikers alone”. He then decided he needed to play some tunes, so I took that as a cue to head back down. I opted to try the steep trail that descends from the north and passes by the secondary summit. I had forgotten how steep it was. My foot also reminded me of this as I made my way down.

I popped over to the top of the secondary summit before continuing down. Passing the trail I used last time, I continued until I reached the connector trail between the Glider Port and the Miner’s Ridge Trail. I tried to keep my pace a touch slower to be nicer to my foot, as I was feeling it a touch. Once back at the car, I spent some time stretching again before leaving. All told I hiked 3.5 miles in 1:58 with 779 feet of gain.

Update: My foot was feeling the effects of the effort, probably the descent, so I am giving it a couple of days of pampering before testing it again.

Torrey Pines State Park Extension

I was able to convince Susie Kara to join me for a before-work hike, even though she had the day off. We settled on doing a loop through the Torrey Pines State Park Extension. Neither one of us had hiked it in a few years, so it was time to visit it again. As I got to the Gully Trailhead, the parking area was blocked off, probably due to the construction underway at the school next to it. Thankfully there was some street parking and it was early. I got some pre-hike stretching in, something I need to be more mindful of before she pulled up behind me. We decided to do the Red Roost loop first, to warm up our legs and technically hit the high point. It had been a while since we hiked together, so we had some catching up to do.

After the loop, we took the Gully Trail down. The low clouds made the hike a bit on the damp side, and the middle section of this trail was a tad overgrown.

Once we reached the gully, we turned north and began making our way up. From there, we turned to the west to make the short climb to the West Ridge overlook. With the low marine layer, not much of a view was to be had. We retraced our route, passing only the second person thus far. Our next stop was the D.A.R. Trail, which seemed appropriate given it was the day before July 4th.

From there we continued northward until we reached the city streets and worked our way back to our cars. We said our goodbyes, as I had a work call in ten minutes. All in all, another good test of the foot at just about 3 miles of hiking.

Sycamore Canyon – Martha’s Grove Trail

After completing my longest hike to date, I decided to keep today’s hike a bit more on the low-key side. Since I was also craving a good croissant, something out near O’Brien’s Bakery would meet both requirements. I opted to hike Martha’s Grove Trail in Sycamore Canyon. They made the trail one way a few years back, so when I was last out there I wasn’t able to do it.

I also thought this would be a good hike to bring my dog, Rocky, along. The trail is immediately to the left past the parking lot. We meandered along the trail, taking in the views as we worked our way toward Martha’s Grove. Signs cautioned us to be alert for toads on the trail. In fact, a good portion of the trail past the grove had fencing to help contain them. However, I never saw any.

We reached the junction near the Goodan Ranch, but I could tell Rocky wasn’t up for the additional mile, so we made our way back up the access road to our starting point. Rocky enjoyed his outing and I got some croissants for myself on the way home.

Frank’s Peak & Mt. Whitney

With the long holiday weekend ahead of me, I decided to try to test my foot a bit more. In case I did overreach, I had some time to let it recover. I reached out to Rick and Andrea Sarpolus to see if they might be up for something. We had chatted a few times online, sharing trail beta, but had never hiked together in real life. Rick suggested we try the hike up Frank’s Peak and then over to Mt. Whitney. I had never done these, so I had to do some research to see if it was within my current capabilities. It was a little more gain than I wanted, but I knew that if after the first peak I needed to bail, I could.

We met at Ridgeline Park, and low clouds still hung in the air, obscuring the peaks to our south. We introduced ourselves and quickly set off. The route took us along a semi-private road before turning onto an abandoned dirt road. We chatted away, swapping stories and plans for upcoming adventures.

We reached the saddle between the two peaks and opted to do Frank’s Peak first. The clouds were beginning to burn off. We found ourselves at the summit, and an American flag hung from a pole with a register box placed beside it. We signed in and grabbed a few photos. Mt. Whitney stood just to the east of us. I commented that was what Sawtooth was like from atop Red Top. The big difference was we will be at its summit in about 20 minutes and it took us over 3 hours for Sawtooth.

Our route continued along an old road until it reached a fence. We passed to the side and made a U-turn onto the paved road that goes to the summit. A very nice home was just on the other side. Their view must be something amazing. The day was warming and asphalt was certainly not helping, but soon we were at the summit. This peak has a large tower and support equipment, which gave us some nice shade while we had a short break and a snack.

After snapping a few photos, we headed back down. The foot was still doing ok, so I was pleased with that. We reached the trailhead and the clouds had all disappeared, so I was able to get a photo of the peaks.

We chatted some more in the parking lot, enjoying a cold drink before heading our separate ways. They are tackling San Gorgonio tomorrow and I will wait and see how my foot does for the rest of the day. All told I logged 4.2 miles, just slightly longer than the hike yesterday. But the biggest difference was the 738 feet of elevation I did.

Torrey Pines – Broken Hill Overlook

Decided to try to test my recovering foot with a bit more distance, but more importantly, some actual elevation gain. So, with that in mind, I decided to tackle Torrey Pines this morning. Found parking along the coast, grabbed my gear, and set off. The skies were still overcast, but that was fine by me. I began my climb up the road with a bit of apprehension, but as I made my way up, the foot felt pretty good. An occasional biker or runner would pass by, but for the most part, I had the route to myself. As I neared the top, I climbed the stairs to the official high point for the state park, moved off the dirt covering the benchmark, and happily took my photo.

I continued cruising south toward Broken Hill Overlook. I realized in all my years living in San Diego, I don’t think I’ve ever explored this part of Torrey Pines. Shameful, I know. I turned off the road and onto a very well-groomed dirt trail.

Several bridges crossed now dry vernal pools as I headed westward toward the overlook. After a couple of junctions, I soon came upon the overlook.

The view was stunning. The sandstone formations, the Pacific Ocean, and some wildflowers are still in bloom. Since it was a work day, I did not linger too long and retraced my steps. The next test for my foot was coming up—the descent.

The park had begun to come alive with many more people enjoying the trails. I made my way back down to the coast, and the foot was feeling pretty good. However, the real test will be later in the day, and how my foot feels then. But for now, I was really happy with what I just did. All told I hiked 4.1 miles with 460 feet of gain. While I was not purposely looking at my time, it wasn’t too bad either.

South Lake

I wanted to get in a quick late morning hike to continue my rehab from my foot surgery. When I was looking at options for new places to explore, my friend Connie suggested that I might like doing the loop around South Lake in San Marcos. This trail just recently opened, so it was certainly one I wanted to explore.

Connie and I met in the parking lot and quickly set off. One thing to note, there are no bathrooms at this trailhead, so plan accordingly. The access to the trail is from sunrise to sunset. After passing through the gate, we opted to hike the loop clockwise. The trail almost immediately splits into an upper path and a lower path. We took the high road…

We cruised around the well-groomed trail, catching up with each other, and stopping to take a quick photo or two. After about a mile, we were back at our starting point. The foot was feeling good, so we decided to do another loop, and this time we took the lower trail. This took us past the various folks trying their luck fishing in the lake. The trail rejoined the upper trail after about 1/4 mile.

After our second loop, we decided to call it as we each had stuff to attend to and said goodbye. This was a nice little local trail.

Bernardo Bay

Today’s adventure was a short loop along the shores of Lake Hodges. About 8 cars were in the parking lot at the Piedras Pintadas trailhead. I grabbed my gear and headed west along the wide trail. Along this initial portion, interpretive panels tell the story of native peoples that lived here.

The trail forks as it reaches the now-dry lakeshore (the lake’s water levels had been lowered for repairs to the dam), and I stayed to the right. The trail would now follow the shoreline for most of the rest of the way.

Various birds could be seen along the empty lake bed. Bernardo Mountain stood high above it to the north. My foot certainly was not ready to climb to its summit.

There were a few others out enjoying the trail, but for the most part, I had the trail to myself. As the trail turned eastwards, I could spot the pedestrian bridge off in the distance. Soon the trail ended at the bike path that runs along the road, and after a short climb up, I returned to my car. A nice 2.1-mile loop was perfect to keep working my foot.