So you want to go hiking…

Hiking options are listed in A) order of nearness to North County and B) level of difficulty.

• Torrey Pines[1]: walk 1+ mile up the beach, climb the trail all the way to the parking lot/bathrooms, and then hike down if you want a decent workout.
• San Pasqual Clevenger Canyon Open Space preserve¹, both North and South trails, about 5 minutes past the Wild Animal Park in Escondido. I just discovered this area in spring and its pretty in a grassy hillside kind of way, and the north trail has a sweet ridgeline hike that you can extend as far as you want. This is a great, steep hike with views and a cool rocking chair at the top.
• Iron Mountain^{1, 2}; this is a pretty boring hike and not terribly long. But you’ll feel outdoorsy and its only ~20 minutes off the 15 in Poway.
• Mt. Woodson^{1, 2}; there are two ways to do this one, the long and short. The short is off Hwy 67 about 25 minutes off the 15 in Poway (past Iron Mountain); it’s a service road that starts at a fire station and is very steep. Once you’re used to it, you can bag the summit in about 30 minutes, but to begin with, expect an hour or so and pack lunch for the top. The long way starts at Lake Poway and it’s a real trail called the Fry/Koegel trail. My friend Mike Fry built most of it. If you start in the morning on this one, you’ll be done well after lunch. Both trails are pretty and have lots of really cool boulders (especially the service road option) so you might want to make a day of it your first time. You can hike it alone but its more fun with a friend.
• Cowles Mountain¹, [2], off the 52 in Mission Trails park in Tierrasanta. I think this hike is super boring but its convenient if you’re meeting folks from central or south SD, and at least it’s a real trail. There is a coffee shop at the bottom. It took us about 1 hour.
• Stonewall Peak in Cuyumaca¹. Drive up through Ramona and Julian and out to Paso Picacho state park. Cross the road and there is a bouldery summit towering above you; ~2.3 miles to the top I think, pretty steep, with some altitude (?5K”). This one looks easy but will surprise you with lots of huffing and puffing. The summit is fantastic, with corny old iron railing to keep idiots from falling to their deaths.
• Mt. Laguna¹. Same drive and parking spot as Stonewall. This a go-to localish hard training hike. It’s a paved service road to the summit but a respectable 3 miles, starting at ~5K” and rewarding you with some pretty huge views of SoCal. It’s the tallest peak in the SD area other than HotSprings Mountain or Palomar, neither of which have terribly good hikes. If you’re training for something bigger, go here with a loaded pack.
• Idyllwild: the following trails are all good and hard all-day kinda hikes:
  _Devils Slide trail[3] , (hardest permit to get, prettiest scenery). I think its about 6 miles one way up this trail to Tahquitz Fire Tower, which is a darn cool spot for a picnic and offers amazing views down to the village and out across SoCal. Elevation starts at 6500” so bring your lungs.
  _Desert View Trail³_ is another nice ?6? mile trail from the eastern flank of Tahquitz, and takes you to the fire tower too. The permit is easier to get but the trailhead is a little harder to find.
  _Suicide Rock³_ is an exposed, 10 mile dayhike to a less than rewarding view from the top of a popular climbing area. Some people dig this hike, not me.
  _Marion Mountain Trail³_ is the shortest route (about 6 miles one way) to the 10,400” summit of San Jacinto. It has big lovely fir trees most of the way and is murderously steep. Sometimes you will feel like just getting on all fours and crawling. It gets prettier the further you go. Crawl if you have to.
  _Fuller Ridge Trail_ is my favorite long hike in the area; ~17 miles, starting around 8600 feet from a remote trailhead up an 8 mile dirt road (near a _lovely_ carcamping campground). As the name implies, the trail hugs a ridge all the way to San Jacinto summit, dipping annoyingly around rocky blocks while teasing you with constant views of the summit as if it were just around the corner. Sweeping views down to the 10 and Palm Springs make you feel more like a breathless bird than a feeble human. The summit is a true accomplishment. Bring LOTS of water, and stop at ranger station in town for self-serve permit.
• San Gabriels: this front-range region has lots of shorter hikes with views of LA, but the more remote ones are every bit as rugged as the eastern Sierra. Here are my favorites in order of difficulty:
  _Bridge to Nowhere (East Fork of the San Gabriel River)¹: 5 miles one way with many stream crossings and some minor route finding to an amazing ! bridge ! spanning a deep gorge, built by the Army Corps of Engineers before a massive flood ripped out the road leading to it. Wear shoes that can get wet, and pants; start early, this takes all day.
  _Icehouse Canyon/Saddle¹ is a lovely, scenic family stroll alongside a river with waterfalls and swimming holes, for the first 3 miles. Then the trees end and the real work begins as the trail switchbacks through scree up to a barren saddle. From here you can do a short, steep dayhike up a use trail to the top of Timber Mountain, which offers eagle’s views of Baldy, Palmdale, and the 15. On the way down you can clean up at the swimming holes.
  _Mt. Baldy¹ via Manker Flats. Some folks use the ski lift and use the Devils’ Backbone trail, but this way is hard (considered one of the 10 hardest dayhikes in SoCal). The hike is steep and exposed but woodsy and you will feel like a mountaineer. Trail starts around 6K” and is roughly 16 miles round trip. The summit is not as nice as Gorgonio.
• Palm Springs Tram¹: for $20 you can start your hike at a gaspy 8K”. Lots of tourists come here because the tram ride and visitor’s center at the top are pretty neato. Venture a couple hundreds yards down into the forest, however, and the crowds vanish, because the next 2 miles of trail wind steeply up into high meadows and separate the wimps from the troopers. Then they table out and you make fast tracks for another couple of miles, and just when you feel like you’re going fast, then there’s that last 2 miles of uphill to the peak. I like this 12 mile roundtrip hike out to San Jacinto summit., but a lot of people fail it on their first attempt due to time. If you take the 9am tram and don’t dawdle on the way up, you’ll be back at your car just around dark. Bring cleanups and a change of clothes if you plan to partake of the fantastic eats in Palm Springs, its more Rodeo Drive than you’d expect. Also note the irresistible outlet shopping off the 10 in Cabazon. Note that the tram gets crazy busy around major holidays, and that the peak has snow (enough for skiing) after mid February. They have an outdoor shop that rents snowshoes and the like.
• San Gorgonio: this is a real mountain with no roads or trams shortcutting you to the top. The Vivian Creek¹ trail is my favorite route to the top at 16 long miles round trip, starting around 6500”. Bring hiking poles, and grimace through the evil first 1.5 miles, which are ridiculously steep, exposed, and generally IMHO ugly. You do this because it gets better from here: soon you come to a meadow area with a creek and bears. Yes, bears. Keep going and the trail gets awesome from here, switchbacking mostly at just the right angle to get you to the final, totally mountaineery-feeling last 2 miles in time for you to collapse in oxygen-deprived agony. If you bend over and stand up real fast, you just might faint, yay. The summit block at ~11,000 feet has all the arid, tundra like décor of a Sierras mountain, and often you’ll meet folks training for big stuff like Aconcagua or Shasta. Most people backpack it but as a dayhike, it’s a real doozie. There are other trails to the summit but this is the fastest one.

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[1] Requires no permit or permit is non-quote, self serve

[2] Can be hiked solo

[3] Requires major permit work, contact rangers

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