I kicked off the 2025 SPoP Challenge with one of the harder (the hardest?) hikes on the list. And unlike my usual solo hikes, a friend joined me. While he's in pretty good hiking shape — we've hiked a few 12-15 milers in the recent past — The Shortcut bested him, and he turned around half way up that trail. I made it to Sizer, but instead of continuing the loop along Blue Ridge and down through Poverty Flat, I returned the way I came. Which, while 1.5 miles shorter, was a more difficult way to go — my watch recorded ~4,800 ft of ascent on the out-and-back, vs ~4,200 when I've done the loop in the past. Ugh.

There's some water in the Middle Fork Coyote Creek, at the bottom of the Shortcut, but nothing that's too difficult to traverse. It's otherwise fairly dry out there, and that along with the mid-60's January weather made it a good day to do this hike.

As an aside…many years ago, another friend and I did an overnight backpacking trip at Henry Coe. We only hiked 6 miles to the Los Cruzeros Camp, but those steep trails got the better of him, too, and he still remembers how unpleasant that trip was for him. So that's two friends that have been beaten by Henry Coe.