I’ve been thinking about getting to the top of San Jacinto Peak for 25 years. My dream of hiking San Jacinto has always been to start from Humber Park. It’s crazy how many excuses I created in the past to keep me from it. I’m sure everyone has their own list of excuses and mine are probably no different than most. They range from no one I know was crazy enough to do it with me, you’ve never walked 10 miles let alone hiked farther than 3 miles, what are you thinking? Why not do something the whole family will enjoy with you, you’ll get lost or hurt, you’re too old and on and on.

Last year I found six pack of peaks challenge on Instagram, and while my doubts were still there I decided to start hiking and I told myself that maybe next year I would be able to climb some of the peak. I am happy to say that 2018 is “next year”, and I have hiked to three peaks and more trails than I can count.

While my confidence, map reading skills, hiking abilities and stamina have all improved, new excuses were still there for San Jacinto Peak. You’re all by yourself, you’ve never hiked this far, this long, it’s a new trail, what if you get hurt, it’s very remote compared to the tram side….why not just wait until you find a group to go with? Instead of giving in, I spent the week thinking and preparing for my hike. Going over supplies, mountain weather forecasts, supplies, and looking over maps until I had the trail burned into my brain. I thought I had prepared for everything and then I remembered that June starts the trail quota permit for Devil’s Slide – only 35 permits per day on the weekends. To make things worse, the station doesn’t open until 8am. My final excuse….I can’t hike that late, it’s too hot and I know my body, it doesn’t like the heat. I called the Ranger Station and found they had 3 early permits left. I didn’t’ even know that early permits existed for Idyllwild Wilderness. The next day, I was there when they opened to make sure an early permit had my name on it. No More Excuses!

Sunday was the day I accomplished a goal I have dreamed about since my early 20’s. Sunday was my day of firsts: It was my first solo hike on a new trail; my first hike over 15 mile; first time hiking with deer; first time feeling like I belonged there not just tagging along and first time at San Jacinto Peak. Sadly, one of the first was my aching feet. How the heck to you get the bottom of your feet used to constant pounding when coming down a long and rocky trail? I hope to figure that one out before San Gorgonio.