My husband and I hiked Mt. Woodson on Valentines Day as our 1st peak of the Six Pack of Peaks Challenge. We chose this hike first thinking it would be “easier” than a lot of other peaks and a nice way to jump in to the Challenge. Ummmmm…..yeah….”easy” is not exactly the word that best describes our experience. Over-all the hike felt on the Moderate side, with portions that were pretty Hard, but the way down became harder to deal with due to sore knees and ankles with the steady decline (after the steady incline). By the time we finished we were pretty bushed and glad to be headed home to soak our feet. I think the distance on this one contributed to it being considered hard.

We started at Lake Poway and the hike ended up being 8 miles in the end. The first portion around the lake is a nice warm up, but then when you branch off the lake trail to head up to Mt. Woodson it became a bear for about .7 miles. It was a steady incline on a wide road with pretty boring scenery. Right when I thought, “is this over yet”, the trail shifted and the scenery became beautiful. After that, the hike was very enjoyable. We stopped multiple times in the shade to drink water and eat snacks. It wasn't too crowded because we went on a weekday (which I highly recommend). There were only a few jerks blasting music, everyone else seemed very respectful of trail etiquette. The heat wasn't bad for us, but I can imagine that becomes a huge problem as the year gets on. Go early in the day for the most enjoyable experience. Bring 4 liters of water and be sure to drink them! Trekking poles came in really handy and I highly recommend them to save your knees as much as you can. We're nearing 40 y/o and we've started taking precautions to save our joints into older age and we've never looked back.

The actual summit was a bit of a let down, we felt the hike up was better than how it felt at the top. We couldn't find a summit marker (not sure there even is one). At the top there are a ridiculous number of buildings and towers along with tall trees, so the view from the actual top isn't great. The highlight of the hike for most people is Potato Chip Rock, we weren't super duper impressed with it, but we had fun posing for pictures.  We were lucky to only wait for two people to take pictures before we were able to. And I have to admit…the pictures turned out awesome! I couldn't get to the actual ledge because there was no way to hop from one rock to the other safely. My husband has much longer legs and is much stronger (and fitter) so he made it over okay. Multiple people scrapped themselves to high hell trying to get over to the “potato chip” part of the ledge. Due to my heavier weight my ankles weren't up to a jump like that so I didn't get the really cool shots of myself.

The walk back was fun too, until about halfway down, then it just became tedious and we were ready to be done. The plant life and crazy boulder shapes made the hike a lot of fun. You see butts and animal shapes everywhere and giggling will take you back to grade school. Another thing we liked was that this trail was incredibly well maintained (in fact there were volunteers out repairing the trail while we were there). Many San Diego hikes we've been on are very rocky and eroded, but this trail was perfect. Nice even paths and not too rocky. Lots of spots to stop and take in the views. Now on to #2