Palomar Mountain 7/3/2011

Hello, I have been neglecting my blog site lately but I haven't been neglecting the mountain adventures. Linda and I went for a hike up at the Palomar Mountain state park area the day before Independence Day. We started at Doane pond and hiked the Cedar Trail up to the Chimney Flats area. This trail was very steep and we probably gained 8 or 9 hundred feet of elevation by the time we reached Chimney Flats. Although stunning views all around as worked our way to the top we had to really keep our eyes on the trail. We hiked about a mile through ankle high to waist high poison oak with the thin trail winding right through it. I think this is the most poison oak that I have ever seen. We intersected the Chimney flats trail at the top and the poison oak decreased and turned into meadows of waist high bracken ferns and fields of purple lupines, totally incredible scenery. We then followed Doane creek all the way back down the mountain and ended up meandering through the meadows and back to Doane Pond. Ive hiked on different trails in this area many times but the flies this day were out in full force. We really had to keep moving to keep them somewhat at bay. All in all a great hike though. By 2:30 we were back at our house by the beach doing some bike riding and hanging out with friends by the water.