Hottest Day Hike

It was forecast to be 108 degrees but it was my my day to hike so I went anyway, knowing it would be a bit cooler at the elevation. I started my hike at 5:45am, should have been earlier but I just couldn’t get up before 3:30am.
I parked across the street from the lot, after hearing people report that the ATB pass no longer works to park in the lot. I was the 4th car there, so nice and quite.

Bugs were terrible at the trailhead, but they got slightly better as i progressed up the trail. This trail is just as beautiful and strenuous as I remembered. I am working on my altitude acclimation, thankfully I only really started to feel it at 8,500′. I only passed one group (6 people) of hikers coming down and one trail runner passed me on the way up. So I had the place to myself. There was a cool enough breeze and enough shade to make it bearable.

Spent about 20 minutes at the peak, taking pictures and having lunch before I started down. I was much faster descending but I could feel that heat building the lower I got. About 2 miles from the end I noticed smoke from the Vista Fire had started picking up pretty strongly, it had been clear of smoke until then. With the smoke billows increasing I was glad I was almost done, and even more grateful that I hadn’t attempted Cucamonga or Blady that day.

Overall it was a great hike. A reasonable 85 degrees at my car, which quickly increased to 108 as I drive down towards Pearblossom. TOO HOT. Glad I was in the mountains.