On Tuesday, May 1st, my good friend, Stacy and I bagged our first peak of the six-pack — Mt. Wilson! I grew up in Sierra Madre. I had hiked to First Waters on Mt. Wilson Trail many times as well as to Hoegee Campground via Chantry Flats but I had never considered summiting the peak until I found Jeff’s Six-Pack of Peaks Challenge; and in a strange way, it felt like coming home.

The trail goes thru a beautiful canyon with such a dense canopy that the rain barely reached us as we made our ascent. The forecast had said rain in the late afternoon so we started from Chantry Flats at 6:15 a.m. It came earlier than expected. We took the Gabrielino and Sturtevant Trails, and arrived at the summit some 5 hours later!

The first miles were nice, hard, but doable. Then, the last several felt like the miles tripled in length and the steepness was excruciating. It became a beast of a climb.

Our mantra during those last never-ending miles was, “We are not sleeping here tonight!” It didn’t matter how many breaks we took, we were going to make it. We pushed forward and through the swearing, crying, at times stumbling, and with our stubbornness, we finally emerged onto the summit. We did take a moment about a quarter of a mile before that to look down into the forest, get very quiet, and just listen. Not one soul we came across during the entire ascent, so the void of human sounds was fully replaced by the sounds of the forest. It was profound.

When we got to the top, the fog was thick and it was misting heavily. The view of the valley below was completely hidden. The temperature at the top was 37 degrees but “feels like 29 degrees” per our weather app. My personal weather gauge read “f’ing cold!”

After having a quick visit with my wife, Cristi, who drove to the observatory to meet us, Stacy and I started our descent back to Chantry Flats via Upper Winter Creek Trail. Upon finishing we both howled and teared up. It had been quite the challenge mentally and physically. It was an incredible experience and I am grateful for it. We hiked 16+ miles in 8:42 hours.