Warriors hike to El Cajon Mountain

This is the first I’ve hiked ECM.  I know it is a hard one so it sat on my list to hike since 2018, before Covid hit.  This year, I wanted to get it done and needed more reason to motivate me.  Thus, I joined 6 peaks challenge and timed the hike to also complete the Warrior Hike by SD County Parks.  On this day I got both accomplished.  We started the hike while it was still dark (6am-ish).  The temp was chilly mid-40’s, but not windy.  We started to see the sun rise about 2.5 miles from the parking lot and the SD County water stations were not yet set up for mile 1, 3, and 5.  At the parking lot, the ranger offered each of us a carabiner with a small rope tied to it.  He said, we can collect additional colored ropes as we reach each water station.  The ground was mostly dry and gravelly in most areas.  I lost count of how many times we ascended and descended on the way up and on the way down.  Most of my complaint was difficulty coming down with slippery gravel.  I used trek poles the entire time and very thankful on how often it had saved my ass from falling to the ground.  The hike took us over 7 hours to complete but we were in no hurry; our goal was to finish and that…we did!