May 22, 2005

The upside of hot weather hiking

It appears to have been around 95 degrees in Sierra Madre when I started a brief hike up the Old Mount Wilson trail. It wasn't that hot, or it didn't feel that hot, but it was definitely hot. How hot was it? I personally spotted snakes and lizards falling out of trees and sizzling on the trail.

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I only went to First Water, for about 2.6 miles round trip and 1000' of gain. I wasn't exactly being stingy with the water, and I drank over 2L going up and down. Total pack weight was about 22 lbs.

There was enough intermittent shade on the trail and a slight breeze so it wasn't that bad. Going up a trail without any shade would have been a different matter.

The upside is that I saw less than a dozen people on the trip. On a cooler day it could have been twice that number. And, there was no one else at the pool at First Water. So, it had that going for it.

Posted to OutdoorSports at May 22, 2005 08:12 PM

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