I have to admit- I was worried about this hike. The last time I did it was 7 years ago or so. This would be my longest and highest elevation gain in years. Plus I was breaking in some brand new hiking boots.

The trail started off nicely by pretty Lake Poway a Park. There was no parking fee here and the bathroom facilities were very clean. The trail was in excellent condition as well. Even the steps were great. One thing that stood out was that there’s so many pretty, large boulders. I thought to myself- this is a mountain lion’s dream (although we didn’t see any thankfully!)

There were multiple view points and picnic tables along the way that you could stop at. I took breaks every so often for water and catching my breathe since I’m still a rookie and this hike is pretty much all uphill. Bugs were an annoyance but the adrenaline to get to the view point was keeping me going.

We were a few miles in, excited thinking we were close. The fit bit said 2.5 miles in but AllTrails looked like we had a ways to go. And then when we thought we were there, we saw another 1.3 miles to go. Wow this trail is long – good thing I brought so much water. But it was really enjoyable- just seemed like it took forever to reach the rock, maybe because there is no actual summit you can see like on other hikes, but you just keep going up and then you finally see the rock and know you made it haha.

We got to the picture point and waiting in line. I was asked by three different parties to take their photos. I must look like a good photographer haha. We even saw an engagement on the potato chip! How cool is that. Finally we got our photos and headed back down. By this time after 2 or 3 hours, the sun was beeming at it was hot. I don’t usually need much sunscreen but I was feeling the heat three hours in.

We finally made it to the bottom. We actually ended up coming out of a slightly different path than we started. I think we put some extra mileage in. 7-8 miles, 1800+ calories, 4 hours (including 35 min photo time) and about 20k steps. We felt so accomplished at the end and said we wanted to do it again haha.

But we both agreed- this is definitely the “never-ending trail” because each time we thought we were there, we had miles more to go haha. (And I know it could be because this was our longest hike yet, but still…anyone else feel this way??)

Overall, my favorite hike yet 🙂