Hiking Sunday Jan. 2nd 2011

Mr SH had set his sights on the top of Mount Woodson after our easy hike around Poway Lake on Thursday. I was not so keen as it was a 5 mile round trip and most of that uphill. But in the interest of a happy start to the New Year I looked up the geocaches and found there were a few I could use as breadcrumbs up to the summit. Sadly I downloaded an old pocket query which did not have them on and only found a couple of them! Oh well that just means another great hike to the top is in my future.
We had a late start and didn't get to the parking until 11 am. We found the first cache quickly although I sent Mr SH up the muddy bank unnecessarily as I spotted the hidey hole behind a boulder along the trail where I was standing, oops!

Continuing up the trail we are passed by several people who are walking much faster than me!
The second cache was hidden in a crack between huge boulders overlooking the fast moving stream in the canyon. The tin was a bit rusty and tricky to open but while Mr SH scrambled over the boulders I signed the log book noticing on the cover the clues to another cache. So I took a note of them for another time.

This is where I notice that there are, surprisingly, no more caches! Convincing myself that the reason is that there must be puzzles that I'm not aware of and I've found the caches on a previous trip at the top from the other side of the mountain I simply did not think to check on my iphone!

It's a long, steep and difficult trail to the top but with much encouragement and frequent stops 'to look at the view' I make it!

We have a picnic lunch at about 1:45pm sitting on the footings of one of the many towers at the summit. We sit looking west towards Black Mountain and south towards San Diego, Point Loma and the Coranado Islands down Mexico way!

Getting very cold now and we can see storm clouds gathering, so gather our things and start down the mountain. The park closes promptly at 5pm and we don't want to get locked in, so Simon sets a fast pace. About a mile and a half from the lake it starts to drizzle and the last part around the lake it's really raining, a first for us to be out on the trails in the rain in California.

The park rangers are making announcements to the fishing boats out on the water to come in and that the park is closing in 1/2 an hour and we hurry to our van in the nick of time!

My legs are shaky and I'm cold and wet but feel a good sense of achievement at climbing to the peak of Mount Woodson. The trail was longer than the 5 miles I thought, closer, in fact to 8 further than I have walked for a long time!