Post your Hikes!

[High Hunter]

Surely, some of you guys enjoy hiking, trekking, backpacking, and/or climbing. Well this is your spot to post your adventures for others to enjoy. Not only is it always fascinating to see what natural beauties are within the world, but it would be really cool if some people found motivation to get out hiking by what people post in here! Plus, it would be interesting to see what you guys' natural environments look like! There are people from all over the World on these forums... Post whatever you wish... Stories, pictures, videos, poems, or thoughts that came to you during your time in the great outdoors. All is welcome.

[High Hunter]

So, I decided to just start posting recent hikes rather than going back in time and posting everything I've done in the past. Anyhow, here it goes. First off, here's a map of the area. (Make sure to click the Satellite tab!) Also, here are my pictures of the hike. And finally, here's some information on the peak. And sorry if this is so detailed, I just love navigation and whatnot. So, here's a brief description: if you move the map to the West a little bit, you should find a white, round water tower, next to the road called Scripps Poway Pkwy. The first picture in my album was taken from there, aiming to the East, towards Goat Peak. I pretty much followed whatever trail came my way, and oftentimes would leave trails to make a more direct route towards the peak I wanted to climb. I especially stopped following trails when I got to the mountainous region, since I felt like walking the wild ridges was way cooler. Picture #7 in my album is a view looking back towards the water tower (where I started) from the first hill after the creek ends on the map (If you select the Terrain feature). The next picture is a view of Goat Peak from that same spot. While the rest of the pictures after that are all views from the Peak! Oh, and the second to last picture (the vertical one) shows how far the water tower is from the peak. It was an approximately 5 Mile (~8 Kilometers) round-trip hike, which took me about 2 hours to complete. (I ran some of the way because I had to be somewhere a lot sooner than expected). It was moderately strenuous, with a lot of elevation losses and gains. (Started at 800ft., and went all the way down to 0 ft. at some point, then had to climb all the way back up the peak, which was exactly 1,686 ft.) Anyhow, the vegetation was pretty thin with manzanitas, some sage brush, yuccas, a few oak trees and sycamores, etc. I didn't see much wildlife unfortunately...only a few birds of unknown species to me, and many little lizards. After some time, I stopped under a giant tree in a dry river bed (Pic #4), and ate some snacks and whatnot. Then all of a sudden a mysterious lady on a horse came up behind me. It's moments like this where I have to do a RC. I did not see another single person out there either. Then right after that I got a call telling me that I had to do something important two hours earlier than expected. That's when extreme decision making came into play. Should I turn around now? Or should I RUSH to the top and run back really fast? Well, since my goal was to climb that peak, I HAD to do it. So option numero two it was. Nothing too profound came out of this hike since I was practically running the whole time, which is too bad. But it was still a lot of fun anyway. The view from the peak was epic as always, so I was happy about that! That's it for now. Thanks for reading, and get out there and report back people! Peace!

[dylanshmai]

I've done the hike 5 times. Once with my school class (which was a crazy idea) and we had to abort it half way down the canyon, because a girl had broken her leg and I ended up carrying around 120 pounds worth of weight from the tired. People have died trying to hike it. first day: hike 12 miles. First you descend a pine tree covered hill and get cut by branches all over you're legs than scramble through a river bed covered in huge boulders which slows down the pace by 4 times. Once it opens up, you are left to the sun and nothing else in a mile wide and 4 mile long bed full of cactus (which you get stuck by whether you like it or not). No water either. The trail goes back into a river bed which starts transforming into a canyon. You camp by a spring which is hopefully flowing. Next day you hike about 8 miles, but its much harder as the canyon becomes narrow, and you have to swim through very very cold pools (In my case, I was uncontrollably shaking an hour later). Then you get to a small stream and the canyon opens up a little more, but is now very very deep and there is no exit for another seventeen miles. Ferns cloud the walls and beaches are common along the river. When I was with my school we barely escaped a flash flood and camped on an island basically. The next day, you hope that you are still dry and you continue on. The land only gets more mystical and the walls get even more massive and beautiful (Think of Zion narrows times 2). Very remote and will be lucky to see anyone else. You get to the escalente river (which is muddy and flowing with plenty of running water and can be deadly in spring time as its deep and powerful). At that point you either go ten miles down river to where a road is and cross bits of land which are completely filled by Russian Olive trees with two inch thorns (not a native plant, some ass hole brought them over from India in the last century) and you get cut up like none other. The second option is climbing up what some would call a V9 cliff with no rope for a good fifty feat before the clime gets easier and finally getting to the top and hiking to a carefully placed parked car on a dirt road. Ive basically grown up hiking these lands ever since I was little, and its last place you want to be in alone, but I am pretty confident my survival skills would do justice, but sickness would be inevitable. You could catch plenty of frogs and lizards and eat them and drink some of the water. I've done ridiculous hikes though (think about walking along a knife edge with hundreds of feet of cliff on either side...not a pretty experience for a 7 year old)...I'm almost 21 now. Plenty of pictures on the internet. Just Google: Death Hollow

[linxx]

Hunter!!!! You, sir, I love! haha i love that you go out and do this by yourself and i can't wait till i move so i can start to share my lovely hiking adventures with you too!! keep it up boy