We began our hike at 7:30 am and it was already close to 60 degrees in Julian. There were a handful of cars already parked on Farmer’s Rd, and we saw a few groups right when we first started. When we merged into the Five Oaks trail there weren’t too many people and the views stretched all the way to the ocean. I forgot that you gain most of the elevation in the first sections of this hike, so our legs warmed up quickly! We rejoined with the main trail and found one small patch of ice that was very slippery. At the summit, we enjoyed views of Mt. San Jacinto all the way to Anza Borrego. We decided to jog/walk down the main trail and  made it back to our car right as the hike started to become more crowded. My watch recorded 5.94 miles with about 1,243 ft of elevation gain.

Also, this was our dog Moose’s first time hiking more than 1,000ft of elevation—she loved every minute of it!