Almost Solo El Cajon Peak with El Capitan & Old Mines Trails

I hiked El Cajon Mountain on my daughter’s birthday.  This was my second trek up the trail.  This time I made it all the way up and back to the trailhead without an injury.  In January of 2021 that wasn’t the case as I fell after bagging the peak 2 miles from completing my trek.  I walked another half mile and was driven out by a ranger 1 1/2 mile from the trailhead.  This is not a hike to be taken lightly as it is steep both on your ascent  and descent with decomposed granite.

This time I had much better boots with lots of tread as I didn’t want a repeat of the previous trek!  I ate before, had a lunch, snacks and plenty of water.  It was warmer than the the previous trip which brought out some beautiful blooms…I was delighted to see lots of bush poppies and ceanothus as well as warriors plume in the rocky section nearing the peak.  The views were spectacular just like the previous time.  This time I did the trek mostly solo meeting the group I intended to hike with at the peak where I donned a fellow hiker’s cape for my groups Super Hero theme.  I ended up descending alone as they were traveling downhill a little quicker than I wanted to and I decided to take the El Capitan Trail before leaving the summit and the Old Mines side trail on my way down.