A day before we were to leave, we happened to read blogs of hikers who stated that they needed microspikes to summit Cucamonga Peak less than a week ago. That kind of scared me, considering I've never hiked in snow, let alone in conditions that require microspikes. I quickly drove to the nearest Rei and bought me and my hiking group microspikes.

We started the trail at at about 7am. It was cold, but quickly heated up as we worked our way to the top. The last 45 minutes or so to the top there were a lot of patches of snow. Some hikers we passed had microspikes and others didn't. We decided to be safe and put them on. The microspikes helped a lot when hiking through the snow patches, but I wouldn't say they were mandatory as long as you proceeded slowly and safely.

The views from the top were phenomenal! We were above the cloud line, the weather was warm with a slight breeze, the sun was out. It was truly amazing.

On our way down, as the sun started to set, it started getting windy. We hurried back as fast as we could, but it was still dark by the time we got back to the trail head.

Overall, it was an amazing experience. I'm glad I bought the microspikes – I think they would also come in handy on the following peaks in case there is snow. This hike is definitely on the list of the top 5 best hikes I've ever done.