This was a great hike, the weather conditions were perfect and it was a beautiful day. I anticipated the first 2 miles to be the most challenging part of the climb based on other trip reports, actually the first mile wasn't too bad, there was good elevation gain but the trail was easy to manage. The second mile was more of a challenge as there were more loose rock and narrow sections to move through. Totally passable, you just have to pay attention to your footing. Coming out on the fire road at a little over 2 miles made the remainder of the hike easier (although there was about a 1,900 ft elevation gain over the next 5 miles).

There was a small patch of snow left on a shaded part of the trail at a higher elevation, actually, it was hard to call it ‘snow' it was more of a dusting that refused to melt!

I passed about a dozen folks hiking back down along my journey up. I caught up with a lone hiker and chatted with him for about a mile until he turned off on another route. The trek up took me about 3 hours, I would have made better time had I not slowed to visit with my fellow hiker. I believe the decent took me just under 2.5 hours. Great view of the Palomar Observatory(ies) from the picnic tables by the watchtower, I enjoyed my lunch in the sun, peace & quiet of being the last one to be on the summit for the day.

All-in-all a great day, #4 of my SD6POP 2 more to go and I'll try to get them in before the end of February 🙂