Went up Mount Wilson with a friend of mine, Eugene. This was one of Eugene's dream hikes: he grew up in Altadena, and every day he would see the antennas atop Mount Wilson from the windows of his house, but never gave them much thought. Sure, he'd been up there–his dad had driven the family up once–but that was about it. It wasn't until many years later, in adulthood, after university and career and moving up north to the Bay Area and starting his own family, that he finally took up hiking and realized that, hey, there's a *trail* that leads up to those antennas! And so it became one of his destination hikes.

Eugene had been preparing for the Mount Wilson hike for some time before, building up endurance by heading up and down Mission Peak in the Bay Area. A few weeks before, he'd hiked a bit of the beginning of the trail, up to First Water, and noted that the top wasn't that much further, only another 5 miles or so. So when we met at the trailhead on this November day, he was ready to go. It turned out to be a pretty pleasant hike to the top–not too taxing, you just got to keep going up! Plenty of folks at the beginning of the trail, less in the middle, then a bunch more folks at the top (although some of them biked up, and many of them drove up). But a good hike, and with great views of the LA basin at the top. Heck, even on the Mount Wilson Toll Road section in the middle: got to see the snows atop Mount Baldy in the distance!