Arrived at the trailhead at around 6:31 AM. Parking wasn’t crowded, only a handful of cars, I assume they had gotten an earlier start. Beginning isn’t too bad, it was a pleasant hike… until you reach bugland, my friends and I called it. We used repellent lotion, and it didn’t seem to help very well. Had to keep swatting them away from our faces for maybe a mile. But after that, there wasn’t too many bugs.
This was our second peak, and it was definitely a calorie burner. It was a good sweat up throughout BUT oh baby the last .25 miles was the real killer! But nothing beat those views we saw.
When we reached the peak, the sign was gone, like someone took it, luckily I made my own and brought it up with me and allowed a couple of people to borrow it for their pictures. At the top there was only 2 other couples up there, so not crowded at all. all in all, this was a good hike from beginning to end. If I had to change something I would start a lot earlier to avoid the heat coming down, but loved it either way!