Hiking in San Diego County
|
Posted:May 31, 2009 7:54 pm
Last Updated:Jan 2, 2011 9:24 am 12840 Views
|
A good book for hiking trails in San Diego County is
Afoot & Afield San Diego COunty (Schad, Jerry. Wilderness Press, Berkeley, CA 2007.
One of the toughest climbs in San Diego County is the Western Approach to Mount Woodson. It is a 6.8 mile round trip (about 10 km) with a change in elevation of 2300 feet (800 meters).
I like hiking, so I thought I would try this one...I had not hiked for several months, had only a few hike before to get in shape. This past saturday (yesterday), was my second attempt at completing this hike. I started at 900 am...it was cloudly, light rain as I drove to the starting point. When I got to the parking lot, there was no rain, the ground was dry. The first section is a steep dirt road ("fire road") which is about 2 to 3 meters wide (6-9 feet). The next section is a trail wide enough for one person, that winds amongst wild flowers then switch-backs (goes climbing the face one way, then u-turns and climbs the face the other way...usually when the hill is too steep to go straight up to the top) to the top....I was really tired climbing this section. The next section was not as steep, but was a climb among boulders and along a ridge. Once you get very close to the top, there is a paved road (from the other side of the mountain to service all the broadcast antennae on the top of the mountain) for a short distance ...Just a side note, when I began to climb up the face of the mountain, I began to climb into the clouds...it was misty, but cool. I prevented seeing the spectacular views, but it was cooling for the hike.
The out and back trip took me 4 hours. I was much better the second trip, the first time I tried, I did climb to the top, but i stopped many more times to rest. I hope to climb it again next saturday.
Happy hiking.
jpollock
|
|
|
0
Comments
|
|
