[Bloated Chipmunk]

Sometimes it's a welcome relief when I can take a back seat & someone else plans/schedules a hike for once & I'm not the one responsible for doing it...but sometimes it means that I get into something I don't quite bargain for. For instance, a hike up an eroded, rocky, slippery, relentless steep fire rd. w/little shade & no particular goal. My friend Keith had explored up this way a few mos. ago & had been talking about going back, & he made it sound pretty intriguing as he described it as an obscure trail up the back side of Cuyamaca w/some brush & eventually reaching a more forested area. He had turned back somewhat early due to bad weather (it was actually snowing, & incredibly windy) & wanted to return to see what was higher up. Barb & I were available on this random Monday so the 3 of us headed out there. @ least the weather was pretty good. We parked @ a pullout off Boulder Creek Rd. & began our hike, which was immediately steep & did not let up for a long time.

Looking back down toward the car

Views

It leveled out @ some point, & we went through a very overgrown area.

Getting a bit brushy

One cool thing (maybe the only cool thing) about today's hike was the abundance of horny toads.

Horned lizard

Horned lizard

Keith & Barb must've been on 'roids or something, as there was no way I could keep up w/them. The combo of a longish hike the day before & this steep ass almost relentless road & prolly not quite enough sleep over the last few days was causing me to be pretty slow. We eventually reached what was pretty much the end of this long rocky slog, about 0.3 mi. straight line distance from Cuyamaca Pk. Its west-facing cliffs loomed above us, & I took a break while the other 2 explored a little further up.

Cuyamaca Pk.

Smoke

Pine cone

It didn't take them long to give up & come back as the 2 different ways they tried got really brushy really fast. We had to do a partial day hike today anyway as Barb had to be back home around 3. Much to my delight we turned around, though I was wishing I could just be back down @ the car already & somehow bypass all those nasty, unstable, ankle-busting, knee-busting rocks.

Time to go down the steep, slippery, eroded road

Horned lizard

Thankfully we all made it down OK w/o major mishap, but Barb proclaimed she now had to ice her knees & was never going to do that hike again. I thought to myself, 'Me too'.

[Bandanabraids]

Cuyamaca is one of those places that I very much miss in southern California. I trained mostly in eastern portion of the state park. I just loved it out there.

[Gimpilator]

I love all your horned lizard shots. It's amazing to see the different coloring they take on in different area. I guess I forgot to make a trip report, but Heather and I did a loop out there which included Little Stonewall, Arrowmakers Ridge, Japacha, Cuyamaca, and Middle Peak. We were really frustrated to not get the North Peak which is now gated but didn't use to be. I think I remember the crappy steep fire road you mention.