Our first time going all the way to the top. I was surprised at all the telescopes and winding walkways. My husband wanted to get our 4 year old off his back so he just bolted to find a spot but not before I was able to get this shot of his delirious face. Haha. It was so cold and windy at the cafe but the hike up was cool with a bit of a chilly wind. The directions we got from a worker there were vague enough to get ourselves so far from our car that we ended up in Fuji Campground, at least 4 miles from our starting point. The ranger (God bless him) on duty drove us down, and gave us water. While I sat there feeling bummed that we had gotten lost, like magic our Uber driver appeared and drove us to our car. We are definitely not rookie hikers but this was a great learning experience and we were able to have a laugh about it while we drove safely home.
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Responses
Getting lost with a four year old… sounds like no fun. I have recently been using Gaia GPS, a phone app, which works without cell phone reception to prevent me from getting lost. Cheap and very practical!
It got a bit scary around 5:30pm… Thanks for the info, we definitely need to look into it. The ranger said there was one called mapmyhike or something along those lines.
mapmyhike is only good for after the fact – it will not give you real time info about your route, and more importantly will not tell you if you are lost. use AllTrails (Pro version is best, only costs $30 a year for the subscription but it’s worth it not to get lost) or Gaia GPS which is less pretty/user-friendly but is free and does the job. Learn about GPX files and how they work, and you’ll greatly reduce the chances of getting off-track again.
iHike GPS: $9 plus all topo’s free. I download the GPX of the Santa Anita ascent and Manzanita Ridge descent. Knew exactly where I was and tracked all trail intersections as well.