Date: Sunday, June 13, 2021
Time start: 7:00ish
Miles hiked: 17.5 (took the wrong trail)
Moving time: 8:1:29
Avg Pace: 28:04
Water: water at the top
Parking: plenty of street parking
Restroom: one at the trailhead (clean in the morning and disgusting in the evening)
Notes: 1. There is a fork on the trail. One goes life and continues as the fire road and the other is a walking trail to the right.  DO NOT CONTINUE ON THE FIRE ROAD.  It leads to the gated entrance to the summit and on the day we went was closed.  The hiking trail on the right is open and will lead you to the summit without issues. 2. There is water at the top, but we found it at a water fountain at the picnic area.  There is a water sign in blue near the parking lot, but it was not working. 3. Technically to reach the highest part of the summit you need to go through the observatory area. Small annoying thing someone pointed out, but there's no marker and you still technically summited when you get to the open area.

Started the hike around 7:00am.  There were lots of people already there, but it wasn't an issue finding parking.  I've done a lot of big hikes at high elevation so I didn't think much of this hike coming into it, but gosh it sucked.  The incline although gradual was constant.  It was hotter than most hikes since we were lower in elevation.  There is plenty of shade going up, but when you hit the pockets of sun it can be brutal.  There were a lot more pockets of sun on the way down… We encountered and passed so many people who struggled on the hike who we never saw at the summit or when we went back so I can only assume they gave up early on.  I think others underestimated the hike as I did as the groups began to thin out and all the noise and chatter began to die down the further we went.  The trail itself is nicely maintained.  I wore boots as I always do, but you can go in running shoes as it is mostly a dirt path. I would even say it is 90% packed dirt with some pockets of loose rocks mostly near the top.  Overall it was nothing too dangerous and it was nice to summit and walk around the area.  It honestly isn't that glamorous or great of a view.  The important thing to note: about 1 mile from the summit the fire road you are on veers to the left, there is a trail to the right. Take the trail.  We blindly went left since we saw so many people walking down and none of them told us that the gated entrance was closed. Some in the group even asked and they were told they were going the right way…so we weren't happy when we got there. Although the views of LA were much better on the fireroad. FYI, there is apparently a “secret” swing on that side. Not so secret as it is shown on Google Maps.  I think the fact that the gate was locked, other hikers didn't tell us about the correct path (we several hikers the appropriate course on our way down), and the heat made this hike so annoying and bad.  It might be great during cooler months and if the observatory was open.