Mountain lions, stranded on the summit past sunset – still love the mountains

Thank God for Rangers!!! I started late- 3:30 PM with just a bottle of water- I forgot the sun was setting early. I reached the summit within 1.5 hours  (a 5-mile stretch) and enjoyed the sunset. I was the only human on the mountain at that time ( There were three high schoolers who just crossed me going down the summit).

It started with a steep climb and then an easy ( runnable trail) – the last 1.5 mile was again a steep climb till I reached the summit. There were some stretches that were slippery and narrow. I started the descend past sunset at 5:40 pm  Rancho San Antonio’s heavily-wooded ridge had pockets of the narrow slippery path here and there. I wasn’t equipped for an overnight camp – All I had was an empty bottle of water and a cellphone with a 40 percent charge, I was using the flashlight. wearing a tennis skirt and t-shirt and it was now 48 degrees I sped, ran down 2 miles, and then realized it is risky to carry on because of my only companions being mountain lions and rattlesnakes. So I ran back up to the Summit ( where there was a radio tower, so some light) and I remember having seen a mettled road next to the tower. I thought I could go there and ask for help. But when I reached back up the steep climb, I found the short mettled road only to lead to another tower and a dead end. Now I had run 4 miles down and up only to be stranded again- only now, with an even bigger distance to cover. Standing next to the board that read mountain lions sited here, and now 20 % batter I called for help . The Ranger found me  when I was on my last 5% battery 🙂