We started driving from Irvine somewhere between 4:30 and 5am to beat the afternoon heat on the mountain. Starting at an elevation of about 5,700, the first mile or so of the hike is the steepest with a 1,000 ft climb. After that, the hike continues at a steady grade of about 1,000 feet every two miles until the summit of 11,503'. Honestly, the hard part wasn't the actual climbing, but instead the distance of the hike. Ultimately, we ended up doing 18 miles of hiking that day.
Like most mountains with this much prominence, there are a number of distinct habitats we were able to explore. The trail starts in a rocky river bed that must have carried hundreds of thousands of years of erosion. After an abrupt ascent we found ourselves among tall red woods along a dense and lush stream bed. Next we reached rocky slabs as the soil started to thin out. At this point of the hike the view across the river bed really opened up. Finally, we made our way through the weathered rubble you find above the tree line.
We reached the summit around 11 am. At the top, we were greeted by a very courageous chipmunk who had clearly been trained in the art of getting food from hikers either through theft, picking up crumbs, or just being generally adorable. We didn't feed him any of our food but that didn't stop him from trying. In fact, at one point he climbed into Matt's lap in order to get at some trail mix. At the top the views were great, despite being a bit hazy that day. Supposedly we could have seen Mount Whitney on a clearer day.
Throughout the hike, we met a number of nice people also enjoying the beautiful weather outdoors. Our best guess is that people who choose to hike on a weekday, instead of a weekend, have a bit more time to take in the scenery and company of others. We made it back down to the car around 4pm, just in time to stop by Neil's Mom's house in nearby Redlands for a delicious turkey walnut salad. This isn't the first time we've burdened Neil's mom with our stinky post-hike presence.
