Conquered

Ever heard of Mt. Woodson?

Because I hadn't... then again, I'm a native San Diegan who grew up in a conservative bubble whose parents are scared to let him ride a bike. (But I digress.)

It's off of Lake Poway, and is a nice strenuous hike where if you make it to the top, you are rewarded with the "potato chip". Which is a piece of rock shaped like a Pringles-chip, hanging off another rock. It's not like a cliff exactly, but it is a bit of a drop if you fall off the chip.

So here is what we set out to accomplish on Saturday morning:

Here is the before picture - suns out, guns out, hah.

A view of Lake Poway at the beginning of our journey...

The sun was out in full force, and we were hiking into it, and this being a hike up a mountain, the incline + heat made for a tiring sweaty journey. True to my long distance runs, the first part always sucks the most, and then in the middle, my mind starts going "let's do this" and wants to get it done. But the newbies I was with needed a little more time to rest and breathe, and to take pictures. Like with this rock formation:

I shall call it "Butt Rock".

Anyways, it sucked because as we climbed higher, we kept expecting to see it, only to be thwarted by another sign saying it was 1.1 miles away. But we made it! Seeing the chip in person, it was smaller than expected. But still a chore to get up on. Been wanting to go rock climbing, so I got to do a little of that so that I could take pictures like this:

I'm a wee-little man.

You can see that the chip juts off another rock, but while it may look like it from that picture, that bigger rock isn't directly underneath the chip. You look down and see a drop. Not as scary as the Skydeck from the Sears Tower, but still.

Rawk.

Anyways, we conquered it. It took us 5 hours to hike up and back, so just as long as a marathon run. My friend Suzy (center) did her first "plank" shot on that chip, so when I go back again (because I most likely will sometime in the near future), I'll have to copy. (Sidenote: when did I become somewhat outdoorsy endurance man? It's cool and strange at the same time.)