Wow! If I ever committed to a hike, this was definitely it.

Let's start with parking. My Adventure Pass expired May 31 2020. And while I was aware that there had been issue with passes selling out earlier in the year I wasn't worried. Friday evening I drove to one store to find that it was barricaded, a second store was closed, a third store was sold out and I finally found my new Adventure Pass at the Greenspot Market (by the way, super cool cashier/staff).

I leave my home bright and early Saturday morning to find that the Chantry Flats gate will indeed not be opening. So I leave it to the group, we can call it a day or we can summit via another trail I had seen on AllTrails. 12.8 miles 4000+ elevation .. a bit more difficult than we had planned for but manageable for our hiking level. We about 1.5 miles in when it started to rain, but we kept going. I realized that I had forgotten my external battery charger, but we kept going. My friend realized that her hydration bladder had a leak, but thankfully I had a full 3L to share so we kept on going. We got to the summit and couldn't see anything because of the dense fog but we made it to the top! Which was when I realized I had been bamboozled. That 12.8 mile hike was not as advertised. By the time I stopped the activity tracker, it was more like 16.22 miles with 5182 ft of elevation gain. My right knee was super swollen and I felt like writing a “Karen” style letter to AllTrails.

On the plus side, we spotted two deers on the trail and I even got a picture of a deer butt. Oh yeah, and did I forget to mention that after reaching the summit my friend and I realized that we actually had at least another 1L of water between us because we each had water bottles we forgot we had.  We barely made a dent into the 3L.

Peak #8 is history and by the way, I don't think I like Mt Wilson.