El Cajon
Six Pack of Peaks: El Cajon
5/15/22
Out & Back
Miles Hiked: 12 miles
Elevation gain: 4,000 ft
Total elevation: 3,648 ft
Pairs well with: Stone Brewing
Elevation map from Alltrails.com
PUDs [acronym]: Pointless Ups and Downs. When a trail decides its feeling cute and wants to showcase its highest and lowest points instead of following a more logical and efficient route.
The last one of the San Diego six pack! Nicknamed the toughest hike in San Diego didn’t deter us, but it definitely had us cautiously planning it.
We started from the trailhead just before 5am, the parking lot was locked so we parked off the main road. Headlights on and coffee in hand, we were feeling good for the first couple miles. There were class 1.8 scrambles (no hands necessary for ups, but you’re sliding on your butt the way down) through the middle of the roller coaster trail and then we hit the solid class 2 scramble to the summit. Belted out the first cuss word of the trail when I finally reached what I thought was the summit only to see the trail veer left with a “where the eff is the summit!”
We hit the summit before 8am and quickly took our summit pics and skedaddled back down the class 2. As the sun got higher and the temp started creeping up, the legs began to tire and the energy stores depleted. We were about 3 miles from the trailhead when dehydration hit hard with nausea and a throbbing headache taking hold. The steep incline and slippery decline didn’t help. Shade was scarce until the last mile and guzzling the last bit of water helped boost the energy to walk briskly down the switchbacks.
This was challenging. It wasn’t the summiting as in most peaks, but the sheer amount of stamina to finish with the severe inclines and declines on the way back. I don’t know how those who started after 8am fared, but hopefully they were safe. The thermostat in the car read 91 at 10:55am. Did I mention they close the park for the month of August due to dangerous heat? Jake and I felt pretty good with ourselves for as Jake put it “making this trail our b..”.
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Our tramily packed up the Yellow Submarine for some camping and hiking fun at altitude. Our goal: summit our first Colorado 14er, Mount Sherman.