Driving in the dark along Silverado Canyon Road, I knew I was in for a treat. While I've lived in Orange County most of my life, I've never really explored the trails in this part of the backcountry. We started out at about 7am, one would expect a nice sunrise, but we had fog. Lots of fog at that…I could barely see 200 ft in front of me at some point. The trail was easy enough to follow-we drove along the road about 5 or so miles and parked along the side of the road. The entire hike was along a fire road.

The fog made for an eerie, yet beautiful scene. It was thick-to the point where we couldnt even see the radio towers the entire time. The fog made for a light misty shower, not enough to reach for my rain jacket, but enough to wet my bandana and top layer. It was cold!-oh the joy of finally hiking in cool weather.

The hike was not too strenuous, at our entry point, the elevation gain was about 2030 feet. It wasnt the prettiest hike I've been on, plus with the fig, I never got a view of the canyon. It was an accomplishment on my part, as I never thought Santiago Peak would be on my radar.

And peak 6, it was.