Cuyamaca Peak: San Diego County, California

There is no better hike with which to start this blog than our hike last Saturday (May 13, 2017) to Cuyamaca peak. Cuyamaca Peak is the geographic center of San Diego County. It is one of the 100 Peaks in San Diego County we are currently working on bagging (yes, that's a thing). We hiked this on a beautiful spring day. The weather was perfect, the flowers were blooming, there was a nice breeze and the air was clear. Perfect.

I am a research geek. I research everything. Every week, I will research the hike(s) we are planning for the weekend. Following is a list of the preparation tasks I undertake prior to a hike:

1) look at blog posts, maps, and weather forecasts.

2) I look at the degree of difficulty and the time estimates for the hike. My husband and I have done this enough that I can usually estimate with a good degree of accuracy how long it will take. We like to stop and take a lot of pictures, so we generally take a bit longer…but it is worth it to stop and smell the roses, we see so many amazing things that we would never experience if we were hiking just to get to the end of the trail.

3) print a map (I have a paid subscription to Alltrails, I’m still trying to determine if it is worth the annual $30 fee, more on that in a later post…)

a. I ALWAYS print a map. GPS is great, but it is important to have a printed backup in case anything goes south with the tech.

4) I check the weather. I generally have a “plan B” in case the weather goes south

5) I make sure we have the 10 essentials packed for the hike

6) I look up driving directions and directions to the trailhead

a. If I am unsure of the area or unfamiliar with the trail, I use Google Maps (satellite view) to look at the roads and the entrance and the area where the trailhead is located, to familiarize myself with the area.

7) Important: I always take more water than I think I’ll need. It adds weight, but it is important to stay well-hydrated.

Now, I listed my preparation steps for a couple of reasons. First, I think preparation is very important, it helps to know what to expect and it helps keep you “found” (not lost) on the trail. Second, to illustrate that there are days when planning does not pan out as it should. This was the case with our hike to Cuyamaca Peak. There were a few things that did not go as planned; fortunately, on this occasion, the comedy of errors proved to be a recipe for a really perfect hike. And we learned some lessons.

We left our beautiful printed map at home. D'oh! So, we used the map we received at the entrance to the park. We later learned that the map we received at the entrance to the park was actually better than the one that I downloaded and we printed.

We were going to go up the fire road, but we inadvertently took a wrong turn. We could see from our maps the way to the top of the peak, and I knew there was an alternate route up from my research, so we changed our plan. Instead of taking the Fire Road, we walked through the campground and took Azalea Glenn Trail and Conejos Trail to the fire road and walked on the fire road for about .5 mile to the peak. We stopped, as usual, several times to look at the beautiful wildflowers, the Southern California Superbloom may not be at its peak any longer, but at higher altitudes, there are still an abundance of wildflowers. We stopped at an overlook along Conejas trail and saw what looked like vultures. The overlook had stunning views over Cuyamaca Lake and the landscape below. We stopped again at a bench in a grassy area about 50 yards off of the fire road (on the right) to have lunch. This overlook was windy and very brisk. The views were amazing, over the desert and to the mountains. Extraordinary. The third intentional detour we took was to walk down another fire road - to the left on the fire road we were ascending - just to see the views. Worth it. The views were, again, absolutely gorgeous.

We got took the wrong trail on a couple of occasions. Each time we did, we realized our error because we had maps with us and knew where we were supposed to be. When we realized that something seemed off, we consulted our maps and corrected course. we never walked more than a quarter of a mile out of our way, and both happened in beautiful, grassy, blooming areas.

In the We walked down the fire road. It was a nice, quick way back to the car, but we were very thankful that we took the trails up to the peak. The Fire Road would have made for a boring ascent.

If you have bad knees, you may not want to descend via the fire road. I don't, but I have been told that if you have knee issues, it is something to consider.

I looked at: Alltrails, Modern Hiker, 100 Peaks, The San Diego Reader, and Afoot and Afield in San Diego to prepare for this hike.

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