Hiked on a beautiful clear day that was the perfect amount of chilly. Climbing in elevation, there was more and more snow packed tight on the trail, so I was grateful to have brought microspikes to slip onto my shoes. I was passively birding while walking, with my binoculars kept at the ready in a chest pouch. This paid off a few times along the way, as I saw some friends such as a red shouldered hawk, a fox sparrow and possibly a northern flicker.

I deviated a bit from my initial plan of doing the ~7 mi azalea glen loop up to the peak, as I found myself missing my turn onto the Conejos trail and headed in the wrong direction towards the Middle Peak loop trail, then decided to commit to my navigation error and continue hiking the loop. Little did I realize that this would add a whole 5 mi to my trip, hence the 12 mi final distance shown in my AllTrails screenshot. Fortunately, I had plenty of water and trail food to support this extra distance, and I still made it to Cuyamaca peak just before the last light faded, giving me a chance to see the wonderful panorama from the Coronado islands in MX to the Channel islands. I was able to descend on the straightforward and paved fire road in the extra dark night of the new moon, and this dark descent enabled me to catch a meteor from the Quadrantids shower before getting back to Paso Picacho.