I did this hike with my good friend Ben. I originally geared it as a routine weekly hike. The goal was simple, get to the top of Strawberry Peak and return to the car. Things can never be that simple.

We arrived at Red Box Gap at 7 o'clock in the morning. The sun was shining and the sky was clear. The valleys to the east and west of us were stunning at that time of morning. There was some sort of event going on but we had no idea what was happening. We set out shortly after stretching and getting our gear on. The trail up to the junction where you head up the ridge to Strawberry Peak was surprisingly gradual and misleading. I didn't think it was going to be very bad. Especially considering we had chosen the Class 1 scramble from the east that was more well defined than the other side which was Class 3. We started the climb up the ridge and boy did the difficulty turn on. It caught me off-guard and so did the sun. It was very exposed and the sun was in full effect. The heat did a number on me, and I had to take a break to get some water on my head.

If the heat wasn't enough… there had to be hornets. At around a mile before the peak, the trail did a “Y” and we chose to go left. Was that ever a mistake. A small hole in the ground next to the trail turned out to be (no pun intended) a hornet's nest. At first I thought I had just gotten poked by some yucca because there was plenty of it around. Then I looked down. There was a hornet hanging off of the inside of my thigh. Ben got it on his leg as well and we took off in opposite directions, swatting at them. I eventually got it to release and after the subsequent chase, finally caught my breath, I had run back down the trail and Ben had gone further up. When I collected myself, I made the smart choice and went right this time and came under the shelter of a pile of rocks where we sat and debriefed about what the heck just happened.

We made contact with a couple guys who were on their way down and we warned them about the hornet's nest. Otherwise, we were the only ones out there, which was kind of nice. A short while later we stumbled upon Strawberry Peak. There's a bump shortly before on the ridge that can be very deceiving, and it fooled us. But we made it. The only thing marking its officially is a metal pole marker and a trail registry in a box. Oh and I forgot to mention there were fire ants literally EVERYWHERE. The entire hike. Whenever I tried to settle down or sit, there were fire ants all over the place. So our break at the top was fairly short. Luckily, our trip back down to the car was boring compared to the way up. Only saw a few lizards and swatted at some less scary insects. We returned shortly before after 11 am, just over 4 hours including breaks and the “incident.”

Besides the sun and the bees, it was a fun peak to knock out in the middle of the week. The lack of people period and the overall ruggedness and out-of-the-way…ness made for a very interesting change of terrain and atmosphere. We had plenty of time to have lunch at In N Out afterwards and get Ben to work that afternoon.

P.S: A chocolate shake and a burger after being out trekking in the sun makes it 10x better and more satisfying.