The hike to Mt. Wilson was an absolutely beautiful, memorable hike I will not soon forget. I was fortunate enough to hike with an extensive group of women from Girls Who Hike LA lead by our fearless mountain woman Mia Svenson. We started out from Chantry Flat at 7:05 am after pow wowing in the parking lot with our group and doing a head count. The most surprising thing about this trail, for me, was the ease of incline. Since I’ve hiked to Orchard Camp before from Sierra Madre, I had an idea of what to expect from the incline of Wilson. This was, surprisingly, not the case for the Winter Creek Trail. I was shocked to find that, for the most part, the trail is relatively flat and the incline gradual, not at all like the Sierra Madre trail. For me this was a very pleasant surprise because I had already anticipated the worst. The first 3 miles continued in this manner. It was smooth sailing until we got to the junction for the Upper Winter Creek Trail at 8:43 am. This was the point when the trail turns and begins the long ascent and the switchbacks emerge from the verdant forest. I was also pleasantly surprised to find that the trail was soft and well packed due to recent rains and the forest canopy covered the entire trail for most of the time we hiked which made for very pleasant trail conditions. We stopped, we ate, we yielded to those coming down. We walked on. We saw mountain bikers and various groups and individuals along the way. And we walked on. We talked, we bonded, we ate some more, and we walked on. We stopped to rest and catch out breathe, and we walked on. The trail up seemed endless for some time. We kept climbing and climbing until we reached a ridge and saw a bench 11:25 am. Everyone was so excited! I jokingly screamed “it’s the summit!” when I knew that it wasn’t. Everybody was just happy to be on flat ground for the first time in the past 3 hours! I then started singing to myself “Wooo oooh, we’re half way there….ooooh ohhh living on a prayer!!! Take my hand and we’ll make it I swear, oooo ohhhh living on a prayer!” After about a 15 minute break, we started the long and arduous final 2 and ¼ miles to the summit. Everybody thought it was only 1 and ½ miles further, but I took a picture of the sign at Manzanita Ridge that said 2 and ¼, died a little inside, said nothing to demoralize anyone else, and started the last leg of the trip up to Mt. Wilson summit. The last part of the trail was not difficult per say, but it was trying. The distance was exhausting, not the terrain. The terrain was absolutely stunning. Large, ever green trees everywhere, not like in the lower altitude parts of the trail. There was greenery everywhere: large imposing rocks along the way, green brightly tinged moss-covered rocks, fallen red wood trees along the path, squirrels and birds in the trees chirping and rustling, and crisp cool bites of chill in the air as we climbed higher and higher. At 12:14, we reached the final turn up the trail for the final 1 ¾ miles of the trail. A brief section of the trail opened up and we saw the high rise sky scrapers of DTLA. And we walked on through some of the most beautiful terrain I never knew existed in the San Gabriels. As we climbed, I remember noticing the greenery that I thought were bushes when we were lower in elevation, were actually large beautiful ever green TREES! At 12:35, seemingly out of nowhere, the summit of Mt. Wilson emerged from the clouds in the distance. I stopped to snap a photo of the sight. Amongst the clouds, I could see the cell towers and the observatory off in the distance. I was still far but the sight was enough to give me the motivation that I needed to make the journey. In that same instant, I also noticed the fire damage from the most recent brush fire on Mt Wilson. As we walked on, we started to see more and more people coming down the trail. This gave us some level of motivation because we knew we were close. As we passed these various groups and individuals, we were greeted with encouraging words and a mix of information as to the remaining distance. At 12:48, we reached the burned area we saw only off in the distance 30 minutes ago and we began the final ascent to the summit. The last 10 minutes of the final stretch were so steep but we pressed on admiring the beauty of the softly singed trees that were scorched from the brush fire. Some hikers were coming down the trail and they could tell how tired we were. They told us we were only a few minutes away. I wanted to believe them but I also didn’t want to get my hopes up. It was just then, that I made the final turn up the last very steep switchback and I saw the pavement! It truly was the most glorious sight. I started walking faster and faster and telling the ladies behind me how close they were, as they were slowing down more and more. I encouraged them to find the will to run up to make it over faster. I took my own advice and ran up as quickly as possibly reaching the summit at 12:54 just shy of 6 hours after we started. We took pictures, we posed, we ate, we rested, and more importantly we used a real bathroom! After about 30 minutes at the top, we packed up and headed back down the trail to Chantry Flat with a second wind of hope for the descent. The journey back to the parking lot was not an easy one. The first few miles were fine. I think we were walking on cloud nine having completed the summit hike but then the long arduous journey started to take its toll. For me, the steep incline that I feared on the entrance became the nightmare I had hoped to avoid. I developed blisters from chaffing between my sock and my boot on both my big toes. I tried to ignore it, dismissing it as typical pain associated with long distance hiking, but eventually the pain became too bad and it was all I could think of. Luckily, a fellow hiker and friend provided me with some blister bandages. And so only 3 miles into the return passage, I had to bandage my toes in the middle of a very narrow piece of trail in the hopes of salvaging my skin as well as my hope to walk out. Bandages in place, the journey continued and so did the conversation. My friend Johanna and I had some great conversations on the way out. Eventually the conversation turned to food and we started to talk about all the things we wanted to eat when we got out of the forest. Finally, at 6:15 we saw the parking lot!!! Next to the summit, this was the next best sight! We knew we had less than a mile left and at 6:30 we safely made it back to our car beaming with the excitement of the day but eager to shower and eat real food.