About one week into my San Diego excursion, I drove 2-hours north the morning after a storm. From sunny beach weather to 12-inches of fresh snow!
My challenge? While I did do alright packing some winter gear for my snow contingent, not only did I apparently not bring trekking poles and gaiters - I forgot my long socks...This began my personal challenge to ascend 1,850-ft in 3-miles as quickly as possible - trudging through calf-deep snow.
While I could make the slight impression of foot prints under the fresh snow cover, the absence of trail markers worked two my disadvantage.
After loosing the trail a second time and climbing along a mountain side in what became knee deep snow, I spotted a fresh set of tracks! Excited that I must have found the trail leading towards the summit (only another 0.5-mile per my gps location), it turned out they were my own footprints from 30-minutes earlier (haha)...
Somewhat discouraged and with cold damp feet, I threw in the towel and began hiking down the mountain to what I knew would be a warm dry car.
Of course, after such a challenge, I sampled some beer, enjoyed a tastey pretzel, and a grilled chicken sandwich. After this, I began the drive back down the winding road from Mount San Jacinto.
