San Diego, CA - Chap on a Chip

We love to hike and have spent many days this fall in that pursuit, from Colorado to Utah, from Arizona to California. However, now we are in San Diego and the hiking becomes a bit harder since there are fewer mountains around here. I’m not saying that there aren’t ANY mountains, but they are further from where we are and more difficult to get to. We like our hikes to be all about the hiking rather than all about the driving. There are a few mountains in the area and we have been hiking them whenever we visit out here.

We’ve had Mt. Woodson on our list for a few years and had planned to hike it this year. Then Marilyn mentioned that she had heard of a good hike on what was called the Potato Chip Mountain. I looked it up online and found that the Potato Chip Rock was at the top of Mt. Woodson. Double incentive: good hike, neat rock at the top.

And - donuts from a new donut shop that we’ve never tried, the Donut Touch. Cute. From there we could look up into the mountains and see Mt. Woodson, the one with the plethora of antennae on top, and Gary dared to say, ‘Doesn’t look bad, maybe we’ll be down sooner than we thought.’ And, I replied, ‘Yeah, doesn’t look too tall.’ Ouch, never dis the mountain before you’ve hiked it. It will get back at you, in the worst way.

Sure enough, it was almost straight up: every time we came around a curve in the trail, I looked and saw that there was no relief from the ‘up’. Oh, sure, we might have had 8’ or so which looked level but even that little stretch angled up, just at a lesser angle. Then the straight up trail ended and we began the steps. Yep, it was so sloped that they had to put in steps for the grade. Last time we dis the trail before we start.

But, I’ll have to hand it to the trail builders - they did a great job. It must not have been easy to build the trail up this slope through the rocks but they did it. Finally, after we finished climbing and stepping and twisting and turning for miles, and were tired, we saw Potato Chip Rock. And the line which is almost always there. Everyone wants their picture taken on Potato Chip Rock. Luckily it is a weekday or the line would extend down the trail. Here it is a short line.

And here’s Big Gary, in his surfing pose.

And here he is in his ‘when are you finally going to take the picture, Nancy?’ pose.

We got a phone call while we were there. Of course, look at all the antennae up there - must be a Verizon one somewhere.

After the picture taking, we climbed to the actual top for lunch where the 360 degree view is great.

And we got to see how San Diego gets its cell phone and TV coverage. Iowa puts cell phone towers and TV antennas in corn fields while most cities out here put them on the nearest highest hill.

Here we met a woman climbing up the other side, up the road which the service trucks and vans take. Having climbed some of these antennae service roads before, I know that they are probably shorter but steeper than the hiking trails. I asked her how often she did this trail. Oh, 3 - 4 times a week. And, then there was this white PVC pole at the top where someone is carefully recording every time she or he climbs, form 2006 to 1/18/2014. Every week this person climbs but did not climb for the 3 months that it was closed off because of a fire.

Back down we decided to hike around the lake thinking it would be fun to walk across the dam which forms it. We were hiking along, crested a small hill and saw this coyote crossing the trail. He moved too fast for me to get a picture while he was visible on the trail but Gary got a picture as he climbed the slope of the hill on our right. He certainly was a healthy looking coyote, he must eat well in this valley.

By the way, we heard a story on RV recently about a coyote that climbed a 6’ wall around a yard in San Diego and attacked 3 dogs there. One small Jack Russell terrier chased off the coyote but lost its life in the process. Brave little dog and it saved the other two dogs.

At the dam, there was a sign that the dam was off-limits and that the trail went that-a-way. Oh, shucks We did note that there was a trail going along the dam, just low enough that no one could see any hiker who was taking it. Looks like a well-used trail.

Down into the valley below the dam, then up over the hills that surround it. Oh, boy, more elevation for our day. And, finally, we were back at the parking lot. Trail creep and dissing the trail will bite you in the butt every time.

8.7 2490’