It was an absolutely gorgeous day, warm but not too hot, with beautiful cool breezes and wildflowers everywhere. Clear skies and views for miles! We saw two snakes and a swarm of bees, but nothing too scary. Lots of people on the trail (many loud talkers!!) and dogs doing their best to get up the mountain. We took a wrong turn at the fork in the road and ended up adding about a mile to our journey, which was a bummer but not horrible. The story of the day was the false summits that were really vertical and scrabbly, on hands and knees kind of climbing. I felt a little bit of the altitude, but not too bad. Going down felt really long and hard on the toes and knees, but poles help that.

This was our first hike in the 6-pack challenge so we learned a lot for the higher elevations, and need to train more!! But overall it was a really beautiful day and a very enjoyable hike despite the climb in the last mile of the journey.