🔭 Mt Wilson Peak with a Pup

Since I had done the Mt Wilson hike from Chantry Flat last year, I wanted to try a different route for the SPoP challenge. So I was happy to hear that the Little Santa Anita Canyon trail had re-opened just a few months ago! It’s a beautiful with a ton of breathtaking views. It feels more exposed overall than the Sturtevant trail, but I was glad I explored this one to get another view of the mountain. Plus, this time around I made the effort to find the peak sign, which I had missed last time around. So that was a fun discovery!

We faced some minor obstacles, one of which was a giant beehive attached to a tree that was overhanging a narrow part of the trail. There was no good way around it, you just had to duck and rush through and hope for the best. Thankfully that worked for me, both ways! And then other obstacle was a fairly big rock slide that had blocked the path along the toll road section. We had to scramble across it, and I had to help my pup navigate her way over the rocks. But we did it!

One thing to note for myself, is that because this is an out-and-back trail, it was a lot of mileage going back and forth on the same trail. What I enjoyed about the trail from Chantry Flat is that you can make it a big loop, so you can see some different sites on the way back down. It’s really no big deal, it’s all so beautiful anyway, it’s just a personal choice.

Inari crushed the mileage on this hike. There’s no other way to put it. She had plenty of pep in her step the whole way through, and even frolicked in the creek around mile 13 with a lot more enthusiasm than I thought could be possible at that point. Really proud of how she handled the rock scramble, I could tell it was a little stressful for her when she got stuck, but I helped her problem-solve and she seemed really proud of herself when she finally made it across. What an awesome dog, my best adventure companion ♥️🐾