Mt. San Jacinto Outdoor Recreation

Hi y'all,
My daughter, Alison, who lives down in Brawley, needed a hike on Sunday. Being as I like to spend Sundays with my husband, Larry (who doesn't hike much), I suggested that he should come along, too. So Ali decided that my grandkids would also join in.

We planned to meet at the Visitor Center in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, which is somewhat in the middle for us to drive. When Larry and I entered the park there was a road block. The officer told us there was a fire in the park and we couldn't enter. When we told him of our plans he suggested that we meet Ali somewhere along the Sunrise Highway.

We met Ali and the kids at the ranger station along the highway and picked up a copy of Jerry Schad's "Afoot and Afield San Diego COunty." We chose to hike the Sunset Trail.

The trail was nice and level. We hiked to a pond called Water of the Woods, which was lovely. Then we continued down the wildflower-strewn, oak and Jeffrey pine studded trail. At 3 miles we turned around and headed back.

This is a great hike for novice hikers. The guide book we bought is excellent. We will be doing much more hiking in the area I'm sure.

I'll get some pics up later.

Hey, not bad at all for an on-the-fly "plan 'B'".

HJ

Jerry Schad was an awesome guy who will be missed. I learned a lot from him.

He was a local legend in SD county! He was a busy man who actually took the time to answer my emails when I had a question.

He died way too young. The SD UT and Weekly Reader had some excellent articles about him near the end of his life.

He married something like a year before he died of cancer.

Hi HJ - Yep, thank heavens we had cell reception so we could communicate with Ali and come up with "plan B."

Hi physicslord - I met Jerry Schad at an Outdoor Retailers Show, and after a nice chat with him, he autographed my copy of "101 Hikes in Southern California." He is very much missed. It would have been fun if he had been a member of our board here.

Between Larry and me, we took about 150 pics. We managed to edit some out but there are still too many pics, I admit. (sorry ) Larry's pictures are first (lots of family and landscapes) and mine are last (lots of wildflowers.)

Here they are:

https://picasaweb.google.com/sallymorle ... directlink

Sally wrote:Between Larry and me, we took about 150 pics.

obviously here the trail cuts straight up the granite face, along the extended limb, with a rappel (for Larry) or a paraglide (grandkids) down to resume the footpath

Isn't it amazing how 2 cameras on the same hike perceive such different things? Thanks for sharing.

Hi HH8,
Actually, the extended limb is a monsterous eel with a gaping mouth (it's kind of hard to tell with the shadows and all.) We might have rappelled or paraglided down if we weren't so afraid that the eel would eat us!

Very cool photos. Even though I've been to Mt. Palomar, I just don't think of San Diego as having interesting pine forested mountains. Nice stuff.

HJ

Howdy Sister Sally

Love the wildflower photos Thanks for a great hike yesterday.

Miles of smiles,
Ellen