A Rainy Day in the Mountain

Finding the trailhead was a little confusing. We got lost for a bit, but following hikingguy.com directions we managed to find it. A high clearance vehicle isn’t a must, but I think it is a wiser choice since you do have to drive through some dirt and holes. We started our hike at 4AM. It was perfect weather and hiking in the dark was a ton of fun. The trail is very clear and visible so not having sunlight wasn’t really a problem. The trail was long… and I mean SUPER long.. it really felt neverending (might be because we only got 1hr of sleep the night before..terrible idea). We felt very exhausted but we were determined to summit. We did take a nap a little past manzanita flats, which gave us a second wind to keep going. The entire hike has beautiful views, even from the beginning. There wasn’t too many people hiking when we were there (we maybe saw like 20). It began to rain while we reached the summit! and while we descended a little bit as well. There is a little box at the summit where hikers have left notes and little things for other hikers which i thought was a very sweet gesture. There is a place to fill up water but we traveled with our 3L packs and we still had water left in our bladders at the end of the hike. Overall I think the hike was beautiful but I honestly couldn’t enjoy it fully since I was so tired. Make sure to REST and HYDRATE days before this hike!