It was raining when I got up at 0'dark:30 and I looked for a text from my ride cancelling the hike, but she was made of sterner stuff. We met up and rolled out to meet the third in our group in Beaumont.
The road is paved all the way to the trailhead now, which was a welcome surprise to me.
I've been up a couple or three times before, but one friend never and the other had never been on the mountain before. I'd like to say that we crushed it, but I'm a fat old man and I slowed the ladies down.
The trail starts off with a good climb and then gets steep heading to the Deer Springs junction. Then up to Little Round Valley and up to the hit and the top. We hit the summit in a little over 4 hrs which ain't that great, but OK for me.
I had friends coming up from the museum (C2C) and the tram and was hoping to run into them, but they bracketed me, so I missed them.
It was a great day. The rain ended and we were above the clouds. The view was great and the summit, as always, was awesome.
The trail down was twice as long as the way up, but we eventually made it back to the trailhead.
This is the best route. From the tram it's too easy. From Humber Park is nice, but long. The ups and downs off Fuller Ridge get tiresome. And C2C I haven't finished yet and it's probably too late to try before fall. So for my money this is the route.
It was great taking two people up this trail for their first time, I'm sure it won't be their last.