Another Bay Area hike inb the books. Today, my partner, Crystal and I headed over to Sunsol Trailhead to do an 18.5 mile hike with about 3,970 feet in elevation gain. We instead managed to get in a 19.92 mile hike with about 5050 feet in elevation gain.

The morning started out great. We began our hike right around 8:15am. Weather was perfect at that time and there were only a small handful of people at the parking lot. However, we knew to expect temps in the 80's later in the day and that this trail is mostly exposed. The trail is easy enough to follow, but if you don't pay attention to some of the turns and cross trails, it is easy to walk right off the trail. Like we did a fee times on our ascent. Nothing major, and easy correct to get back on trail.

We made it to the summit in about 3 hours and 50 minutes. A pretty good pace with the, few short off trail adventures and the trail warming up. The summit a bit lack luster. There is no summit marker, but there is a summit register hidden in a hollowed stump. Just be careful when you reach for the can. There was a rather large Tarantula living right next to it.

As we headed down, and at my suggestion, we decided to alter our route. So, instead of heading back down the Buckboard Trail we turned off about a half mile down from the summit onto the Portuguese Point Road and the Brogan Route. While cruising along I missed our turn to take us onto the Brogan Route and we instead found ourselves at a locked gate where the Private Property line is. So, turn around and cut across the field for about a quarter mile. Unfortunately, when we made it back to Portuguese Point Road, I wasn't paying attention and ended up following the road almost all the way back to the Buckboard Trail. At this point we should have just cut our losses and continued on using the original trail we came up on. Nope! We (I) doubled down and headed back down the Portuguese Trail, determined not to miss our turn off again.

Turns out the turn off was a very faint trace trail. As we followed it, it became even more faint and lined with poison ivy. We did make it back onto our original trail, but not until we added about 1.5 miles to our hike and an additional 1,000 feet in elevation gain. WORD TO THE WISE, DO NOT TAKE THE PORTUGUESE POINT ROAD OR THE BROGAN ROUTE to gt up to or down from the summit. It was a hell of a trek and not worth the potential .5 miles it may have saved.

Once we finally made it back to the original trail, we made quick progress on our descent, however, the heat of the day (in the mid-80's and exposed) had set in and we felt it. Especially at the lower elevations. I took 4 litters of water and a half litter of electrolytes and drank it all. So, be prepared if you're heading out there soon to complete this peak.