For the past few years my girlfriend and I have decided to hikr on my birthday. As we like to be challenged and what better day to do it than your born day. We woke up early because we knew and expected it to be hot and it was. We hit the trail with great excitement and high expectations but we had no idea what we were in for. This hike challenged us in ways we'd never expected. Beautiful foliage, awesome vistas, but the 6 mile uphill climb kicked our asses. We struggled and we are seasoned hikers. The only thing we could do was laugh and keep each other encouraged. False peaks, short switch back, and that damn uphill. We made it though, enjoyed the view had lunch and started the painful hike down. 4 hours later we made it to our car. Legs shaking, dusty, relieved and accomplished promising never to do it again. Lol.