This was another great hike, I started just a few minutes before 7 am on Thursday and there were only a handful of cars in the parking lot. The weather at the trailhead read 39 degrees – perfect weather to start out this hike. I was prepared for the first steep part of the trail and was rewarded with an early morning deer in my path about a mile into the trail. The walk through the Manzanita to Limber Pines Bench was a nice break from the climbing. I met a couple of other hikers resting there and we would meet again at the summit for lunch.

As I neared the summit, there were more snow patches, nothing that really affected the hike at all, but cool to see. It was amazing with as warm as it's been, there there were still good size snow piles along the route. Washington's Monument was a cool thing to visit, when you see the plaque at 10,290 feet, follow the little path that goes off just to the right and behind it to see what's left of the original monument.

I found a shady spot at the summit to enjoy my lunch and visit with new friends, grabbed the obligatory summit pics, checked out the views of my two remaining peaks (San Jacinto and Gorgonio) and after about an hour and a half, headed back down. It was an easy descent with another deer sighting on my way down. I finished the day with just about 10 hours of total elapsed time with 7h 46m of moving time.

Peak #16 done and only 2 to go to complete all 18! 🙂