This hike nearly ended my hiking for me. I learned some valuable lessons this day and was thankful to be able to learn them and continue. The original goal was to leave San Diego country at 5am and get to the trailhead by 6:30am. It was a scorcher of a weekend but we'd thought we'd thought it through and would be able to get up and back before the heat of the day happened. Well… we didnt get to the trailhead till nearly 8am. This should have been our first sign to go back and try again another day … we brought a dog… I had 3L of water. My niece had 5L for her and the dog. The start of the trail was good. We meandered through the scrub and enjoyed the terrain. I had a low blood sugar situation about a mile in and we stopped to treat that. That should have been our 2nd sign to go back and try again another day. At about mile 4 my niece decided that her and the dog were done and they pulled off in the shade. Our rules are that we always stay together… We've hiked many hikes together and we've always agreed when one person is done the group is done… no hard feelings or judgement. Well.. we sat in the shade for a while. She and I looked at the map and it was determined that the peak was just about a mile further. She told me to go ahead. She would just stay put. So against both of our better judgement I did… I didnt realize I was already suffering from some heat exhaustion. I was sipping my water but I was just getting too hot. I managed to get to a point where I saw the trail leading up to the peak and there was a woman sitting on it. I made my way to her and found that she had broken her ankle and she and her husband and son were trying to figure out what to do. She encouraged me to just go to the top… it was just a little further… albeit very very steep! I was hurting by now. There was no shade. I needed to find shade. I managed to go by her and met a couple coming down. They said it was just a bit further… I was talking to them but frantically searching for shade. I was so hot. I went about 10 yards further and laid down under a manzanita tree… The shad was minimal but it was the best I could find. I had a cooling towel and it was damp so I covered my face to try to cool myself down. I did this two more times before I go to the peak. I took a few photos at the peak but again found myself lying in the bushes trying to find shade. I was going through my water. About this time I became aware of the helicopter coming in to rescue the woman on the trail. I got up and got down past her so that I was out of the way. I met one of the rescuers on the trail who had been lowered to help her. He asked if I was okay… I so wasnt but I didnt ask for help. I was clearly not in my right mind. I went about 50 yards back down the trail and again laid down in the bushes the best I could to find shade. I was texting with my niece but the texts kept dropping. By this time I'd been gone nearly 2 hours. She was worried and she too was running out of water. I finally managed to get myself to her but I was so overheated. By this time we were in full sun and had 4 miles to get back to the car. The ground was hot and especially  hot for the dog. We tried running between bits of shade. We laid down in some areas for 20mins just to try to cool off. At about 2miles from the trailhead we were officially out of water. I was desperate to get down. My niece was unsure if she was going to have to carry a 90lb 2yr old german shepherd the last bit. Just then we came on the rescue crew that was hiking up to meet the family of the woman who was flown out. The first rescuer asked if I was ok… I said I was fine… I just wanted past them to get to the car. My niece (in her right mind) immediately spoke up and told him we had run out of water and we were not fine. They gave us 6 bottles of water. I guzzled one right there in front of them. We finished the 0ther 5 before we made it back to the car. At the store we bought juice and more water. I had gatorade and watermelon in the car.  We sat in the shade at the parking lot dousing the dogs paws with water to cool him down… drinking and rehydrating… what a foolish trip. I summited #4 that day but at what cost??? We both rehashed the day on our drive back to San Diego… reminding ourselves of what we did wrong and to never forget. The view was beautiful but I honestly did not enjoy it as I was ill-prepared. The last bit of the trail is super steep. I fell probably in the same place as the woman before me but was able to get away with just road rash. I would do the trail again but in the spring or much cooler weather.

Still… #4 of 6 is complete.