My hiking partner and I carpooled again! Yay! This time we used her Mini Cooper and since she's a better mountain road driver, she took the wheel :). We left town at 5am to Lake Elsinore. Placed the Adventure Pass on the dashboard then headed our way across the street and stepped foot on Bear Canyon Trailhead to begin our hike at around 7:45am. Signed the trail register. So today we're climbing Sitton Peak in Cleveland National Forest, passing San Mateo Canyon Wilderness. The beginning of the trail was a gradual, kind of warm-up incline…some flat…then more incline. Some parts of the trail are muddy, some rocky, some dry and cracked, some soil red in color! A lot of shaded areas with oak trees. The flowers are starting to bloom and there's a lot of buzzing bees. Some rocks are covered in moss. We saw bobcat prints on mud. Yikes! Spotted acorns, sugarberries, wild cucumbers, miner's lettuce, manzanitas (with fragrant flowers), and not-too-many, poison oaks which I tried not to brush on. My nemesis! The last half mile to the peak was a huge incline. It was a climb! The difficult climb made it more worth it.

The summit has boulders and three USGS markers. We made it to the top in a little less than 3 hours. That was pretty good we thought. We snacked and soaked in the views. Snow-capped Mount Baldy visible from a distance. Pati was drenched in sweat and I told her I was jealous so I poured water on my head and soaked my hair and face and oh that was refreshing! I calculated and that was extra liter in my pack :). We took the mandatory summit photos and surprised her by pouring water on her too as the camera timer was ticking down. Captured a happy shot!

We stayed for an hour at the summit then started our descent at 12 noon. Coming down was a challenge but I find it easier than the uphill. Pati is better the other way around. She told me I tackled that downhill like a mountain goat. Haha! We reached the trailhead at 1:20. Went to the nearby Ortega Oaks Candy Store. I got cashew barks and peach ring gummies for the boys and ice cold rootbeer for myself. We sat on the picnic table outside and enjoyed our cold drinks. I waved at the passing cars too on Highway 74. Oh that was fun! We left the parking lot at 2pm. We were hungry and passed by McDonald's right before entering Hwy 138. Pati had Big Mac, fries, and Coke; I had fillet of fish sandwich, fries, and iced caramel macchiato. We thought we deserved it. Ate in the parking lot. Yum yum!!!

Anyway, I didn't find the trail as difficult as Strawberry Peak. It was still enjoyable though…and still a good workout. Completed 26,342 steps and 10.14 in my real miles :). Sitton Peak sits at 3,273 feet above sea level and the hike records a 2,037 feet elevation gain. And it's an out and back trail. Accomplished our second peak! 4 to go. Woohoo!!!