Mt. Wilson and the LADYBUGS

Peak	Mt Wilson
Group	N/A
Trailhead	Chantry Flats

I hadn’t really decided if I wanted to join the six pack challenge, but doing this hike made me decide that it was what I really wanted to do.

A friend of mine decided to go with me, and we headed out from Chantry Flats at 8:30AM on a Thursday. From what I’ve been told it can be pretty crowded on the weekend. Heading out on a Thursday was great choice. Almost nobody in the parking lot when we arrived.

The weather during the day was perfect. Low 60’s when we started, and with the tree cover it never really got warm. That’s not to say we didn’t get warm. Both of us were down to our last layer in the first 2 miles. I was glad that I had a long sleeve shirt though, as I tied it around my waist and used it as a towel to wipe my face, seeing as though I forgot to bring one..

The highlight of the trip was the ladybugs. For about a 1/4-1/2 a mile before Sturtevant Camp there were blankets of ladybugs as far as you could see. The covered EVERYTHING. This alone probably delayed our hike by 15 minutes as we just marveled at the millions of ladybugs. Never seen anything quite like that.

After eating lunch at the summit, we started back down the Winter Creek Trail. We ended up on the Upper Winter Creek Trail. We had taken a quick snack and water break near Hogee’s Camp and just missed going down the lower trail. By the time I checked the phone GPS, we were pretty far along the trail. It worked out for the best, as I think we would have been toasted if we had to do that last half mile uphill.