Hiking is more difficult in San Diego that in Palm Springs, since it is close to the coast and there are fewer mountains close by. However, Mission Trail Regional Park, within the city limits, has a peak that is 1592’ tall and several that are in the 1200’ range. We’ve climbed the 1592’ peak, Cowles Mtn. which is daily ritual for many San Diegans who are looking for a quick aerobic workout. They run up, they run down. The trail is a continual Z as the trail switches back and forth up to the top.
Interesting story about the name of the mountain and the name of the town to the north. Seems that a Mr. Cowles moved out west for his wife’s health, settled in this area and became a successful businessman, naming the town where his ranch was, Cowlestown. His wife’s health improved so much that he died first and, when she remarried, she renamed the town Santee, after her second husband, Now, that’s gratitude. Or, maybe that’s cojones.
Meanwhile, back at the hike: since we had climbed Cowles several times, we decided to climb up to the Fortuna saddle, then to South Fortuna, back down to the saddle and then up to North Fortuna, down the ridge line to the fence along the highway and back to the parking lot.
The first mile or so of the trail was delightful, following a flowing brook and crossing over it a few times on the rocks which had been strategically placed.
We also passed by an original dam, built by the Kumeyaay to supply water to the Spanish mission closer to town. It is pretty substantial and was originally 244’ long, 13’ thick and 13’ high constructed of rock and cement.
This park has also been used as a marine base during WWII. In fact this sign tells you this as you pass by. Several years ago, 2 young boys had found some ammunition, had picked it up and both died when had exploded. How sad.
Then the trail turned up to the saddle, became a road and climbed straight up. Roads don’t do switchbacks, they just climb up (to the electric lines which ran across the park.) Not only was it dull but it was steep with no flat sections to relieve it. It just went up.
But it was the way to the top and that was our goal: lunch at the top of the mountain. And, also at the top were 360 degree views of the San Diego area from the islands in the bay to the mountains in the interior. Here’s Gary standing on what was our lunch ‘table’ surveying the view.
We hiked down South Fortuna and then up North Fortuna along a steep trail. Beautiful views from the top and we also found 2 army ammunition boxes with lots of notebooks inside. Someone had taken the trouble to supply all who climb with notebooks to record their thoughts.The earliest notebook that we found was dated from February 2007. Neat idea and it was fun to read about the previous climbers.
Down the other side of North Fortuna was a trail, what a trail ought to be, not a road. Then, when it met the fence it turned again into a road with steep ups and steep downs. At one point we found a Ranger truck which had tried to get up one of the hills, had gotten about 20’ up, gave up and headed down to park at the bottom. The 4 who were in the truck then walked up like we did. When trucks can’t make it, you know it’s steep.
No comments:
Post a Comment