This morning I headed out solo to the Volcan Mtn trailhead from the Pacific Beach area of San Diego where I am staying for a few days. It was easy to locate with plenty of parking. I hiked up via the access road and ran into a few patches of icy snow. It was easy to navigate around. A beautiful day with incredible views. There was a nice cool breeze blowing towards the top. I took some time to appreciate the views on all sides then headed down through the five oaks trail instead of taking the access road the entire way. In all just under 6 miles out and back. A shorter hike that was not to difficult and a good start to bagging 6 plus peaks this year. While I do enjoy the original six peaks and have climbed them many times over the years I’m looking forward to climbing a number of the San Diego and Orange County peaks as I’ve not hiked much in these areas so there will be quite a few new hikes this year. A beautiful day to be outside. Lastly and most importantly since this hike is just outside Julian you really should head into town and stop for a slice of pie or in my case pick up a whole caramel apple crumb pie. It’s going to take a lot of hiking to burn this pie off.