| Peak | Mt Wilson |
|---|---|
| Group | N/A |
| Trailhead | Charty Flat, High trail |
Well, yesterday me and my boyfriend hiked Mt.Wilson, it was our first time for the both of us and I must say it was brutal!
Let me start with the parking situation. We reached the Charty flat parking lot around 7am and it was already full, people was parking aside de road and walking to the trails. We parked a mile away from the trail that if you think about it is not true, but when you realize you need to walk all that extra mile after a 14miles hike then you will understand why my comment. Anyway between getting the day pass, finding parking and the pit stop before starting the hike we starting our adventure to Mt. Wilson summit around 8am. The trails were already busy, lots of hikers and people with dogs that were heading to the waterfalls mainly. Smaller group we were heading to the summit. While we were moving we started noticing the trail is becoming a little bit steeper and we also noticed the presence of this little tiny guys that along the hike made our experience literally impossible: mosquitos!! All the way to the top we were attacked but this little buddies who practically made our hike ups harder Thant it already was. We decided to take the “high” trail that is (in my opinion) more stepper than the other ones and also the traits becomes super narrow at some points where you need to be very careful on not slipping and fall. On the other hand it was also hard to find a spot where to take a rest, where we can actually “sit” and release the weight from our feet for few minutes and even when we were able to find a spot for this, the mosquitos made our resting time impossible and pushed us to restart our way to the top earlier than we planned. Our breaks were no longer than maybe 3 minutes each what made us super tired at the end when we reached the top.
It took us around 6 hrs to reach the summit and we stayed there for an hour before we started our way back by taking the “low” trail back to Charty Flat.
I have to say, that when we reached the top I was looking for the plaque for the picture, the round one, but i couldn’t find it anywhere and I was super tired to walk around trying to find it. Instead I found the one Dedicate to Benjamin Davis Wilson and that is the picture I got. I hope this is good enough as proof of my adventure.
Something really great was to have the water fountain to refill our water bottles, we really needed then and based on what I saw on other hikers they needed it too. Most of us ran out of water before reaching the summit and it saved our life’s having the chance to refill them before heading back.
We were not prepared for the mosquitos situation, i just wish we had brought repellent or maybe a mosquito net, at this point I do not think repellent had been enough for keeping them away from us. There were so many and as soon as we stopped in 3 secs we were all surrounded by them. I only brought 3lts of water with me for this adventure and now I know it was not good enough, next time i will be more prepared because i am sure we won’t find water fountain refills at all of them. We better be prepared.
Even though all the adventure and the ups and downs, it was a very nice experience, having the change to push and test my self it is always an amazing thing to do at some point of your life and this is definitely the right moment to do it again. This is just the first one of 6 and I am sure at the end of each Hike and also at the end of the challenge i will be a completely different person, stronger, more confident and definitely more humble. Thanks SoCalhikers founder for this amazing idea! I can’t wait to conquer the next summits!!
