Round two for me this year on Santiago and Modjeska Peaks with near perfect conditions! And, Sarah's first ever summit of these two peaks.

We (Sarah and I) began our day by meeting up at the Maple Springs Visitors Center and then carpooled up to the North Main Divide Road intersection. I drove my Hyundai Santa Cruz AWD and had zero issues making the long drive up. In fact, some portions of the road, after the pavement ends, seemed to have been graded recently. So travel up wasn't too bad.

After heading up the North Main Divide Road we detoured to summit Modjeska Peak. Along the way we ran into two other hikers who were taking the trace trail that began way down the Maple Springs Truck Trail near the 3100 foot mark. We finished our ascent to Modjeska Peak, hung out for a few minutes and then headed down to continue on to Santiago Peak. We opted to take the trail across instead of going all the way back to the road. Too many vehicles going up and down for me. The trail follows just above the road and is much more pleasant to hike. After about a half mile or so, the trail reconnects with the road. About a hundred feet or so after that it starts up again on the left and heads up near the summit.

We spent about 30 or 40 minutes at the summit just wandering around, taking pictures, and enjoying the views. We had clear blue skies above us, but a blanket of clouds covered the cities below 2000 feet. Temps today were very mild, with a slight breeze at times. And, NO BUGS, for the majority of the day.

We ended our hike with just about 9.4 miles and 2,000 feet in elevation gain.