Hot St. Helena Heat

We kinda jinxed ourselves thinking that this would be an easy hike, only being 10 miles. We started on the trail across from the parking area, (No bathrooms, no water, lack of signage) the trail we took was a pretty nice climb for about 1 mile, through the woods and then up a rocky slope. We popped up on the fire road for the rest of the hike. Wide open fire road, few trees, very little to almost no shade. As you get higher up, you can see the devastation that the 2017 wildfires caused. You can see near the peak where they tried to do a fire break and the fire jumped. Shrubs are growing back, but it was very dry and sad to see. The peak had some shade from the cell tower, we were stalked by some buzzards waiting for us to die or leave them lunch….Saw lots of lizards, not much else. Half of our group went down the fire trail the last mile and the others took the shortcut, they came across a rattlesnake, glad I wasn’t with them. Bring lots of water, its fucking hot!