Morning traffic got me up early. I was actually parked in the upscale community of Rancho Bernardo, off Pomerado Road that turns south off S5 and the Poway city park. Streets here are lined with mature Eucalyptus trees, a non-native tree from Australia that has made itself a second home in the central and southern part of California. The trees are thirsty trees, though, and there are no signs in the Poway area of water restrictions to combat the drought.
I walked the dogs around the bank building so that they could pee, grabbed breakfast at McDonald's and then headed straight to the trail head a few miles back into Poway. The trail head to the Mount Woodson trail is inside the city park and easy to find, off the Poway reservoir (which I learned later is off limits to both swimmers and dogs) and is a wide, hard-compacted trail with a steady uphill climb. Both dogs were on leashes as we started in the marine layer, walking slowly above the layer and looking down on the clouds until all that dissipated by the time we got to the top.
We started the hike at 6:35am. The gate to the park was already open but the gate cashier was still closed. Entrance fee is $5 for non-Poway residents on weekends and holidays, so it was free for everyone on this Thursday. I drove in with all the other early birds. It was still cool by then and Minnie had no issues, although I kept watching her for heat exhaustion. Her insistence on always wanting to find sticks for me to throw her tires her out fast and she's unaware of that, so I have to watch out not to entice her.
The trail quickly picked up more hikers who passed us by, and the dogs had to be at their best behavior. Several trails switch off from the main trail to Mount Woodson and I had to be vigilant. Warning signs remind people to carry at least two liters per person AND per dog, and to watch out for rattlers and mountain lions.
Mount Woodson is a mere 2733 feet above sea level, which should be an easy stroll for me since I live at 4685', but even for me the hike was a bit of a strain. I wore shorts, something I don't normally do in Arizona, but here on the trail there was nothing to worry about. I didn't recognize any of the flora, but it was a fragrant flora so unlike our Arizona desert. Upscale homes dotted the hillside, reminding us that we were in a densely-packed area. The dominant colors were sand, browns and dark greens.
The views around us as we climbed up and around chaparral and fragrant sage scrub were of the low-lying, rocky hills studded with large boulders and a few oaks. Many of the homes were well-disguised. This could easily be a hot and exposed trail without the early marine layer giving us a cool start. There are no significant trees along the trail and the few there are are well-spaced apart. The hard decomposed granite path would be a nightmare during a heavy rain storm, as dried ridges in the trail indicate.
The dogs were both well-behaved around other hikers, although Sadie did bark at other dogs on the trail.
By 8:20am the marine layer had evaporated and Minnie quickly got hot. We were at the "Potato Chip Rock" by now, the dominant feature on this hike and still a good 1/4 mile from the official peak of Mount Woodson, which is covered with several radio antennae. People hike to this "Chip" to pose on the protruding rock, but I stayed below it in the shade to give both dogs a break and to rest them for the return hike. Write-ups describing people lining up for 20-30 minutes to pose on that rock are very true, but I had no interest in doing yoga poses in front of everyone. Getting to the "Chip" required steady arm grips and a jump, something I didn't want to put Minnie through. We continued on to the official peak, where the crowds were non-existent and there was more shade here. After a few more selfies with the dogs, it was now time to get back on the descent and out of the heat! Only the few whiptails I saw sunning themselves on rocks were out. Even the loquacious Stellar Jays were in the shade.
The trail is well-marked but it's hard to figure out the exact distance of this hike as there are various ways to get to the top and many starting points. Various write-ups say this is a 6.6-mile hike, but I was on the 3.6-mile route from peak to parking lot, making this more of a 7.2-mile hike. It felt like a 7-miler anyway. A shorter route would be to start from CA67 nearby on a paved road the entire stretch, but that doesn't sound as much fun.
Crowds continued to GROW as we hiked back down, stopping more now for the dogs to rest in whatever little shade there was. We went down the way we came up, taking a short diversion to the lake for the dogs to get their paws wet. That's when I was told dogs couldn't enter the water (tell that to a hot and thirsty and determined dog!) by a kind fisherman in his boat. I took them to a more remote area where they did get their paws wet and drink a little, mindful to make sure they didn't poop or pee in the sacred water; let the many water fowl on the lake do that!
The park was hopping with visitors by the time we got back to the van by 11:40pm. Most visitors are young families who hang out by the lake shore and the concession stands. My plan now was to drive back to Dog Beach in Ocean Beach for some doggy refreshment. By now I knew the way to and from the park and the ocean and had no trouble getting there. This was the dogs' first time in salt water. How would it go?
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