I wanted to push myself and reach the 13 mile mark, longest I’d ever gone, so I decided to check another peak off the list and complete the SD challenge. The trail was nice, had to pay attention to begin for where to turn, but started off in the woods of Warner Springs after getting out of the parking lot.

Most of the trail was uphill and since it’s summer, the sun was just basking down baking our skin. The bugs were terrible. At every moment I wanted to give up, but I kept pushing on. We made it to the fire road and it was nice to be on a wide trail, although there was no shade.

After hiking a few miles, seeing some flowers and nice elevated views, we finally saw the fire tower in sight. It looked quite far still but the trail wraps around. Around every corner we thought we were almost there. And suddenly we saw the Palomar Space Conservatory and then made it to the fire tour.

The volunteers working in the Lookout tour were very kind and informative with some fun facts about how they watch for the fires. Luckily it was a low risk fire day despite the heat. We passed only one person along the way- they looked like they could barely speak due to the heat. We offered water and such but no reply, just kept walking. We made our way down quickly so that we could get out of the sun. We enjoyed some food and a cold beer after our longest hike to date. I felt accomplished for pushing my limits to complete it.