Palomar Camping and Hiking

I drove up to Mt Palomar on Thursday and spent a cold night camping.  But the 2 mile hike up the mountain to the observatory had lots of great views along the way.

This is the home of the 200 inch reflector telescope on the mountain top.  It was too dark inside to get any good pictures but it was kind of a Star Trek experience being there.

Ummm...

San Miguel Mountain Hike

Today I hiked on 2550 ft San Miguel Mountain a few miles east of where I'm staying here in Chula Vista south of San Diego.  I went with my friend Jimmy who hikes up San Miguel every week or so.  We started pretty early, I left home at 8am which got us on the trailhead by 8:30 [VERY unusual for me], because I sort of wanted to be done by noon because of the temps. [It was 81 deg when I got back home]  Jimmy claims though that a cool breeze off the ocean starts up about 10am.

Jimmy's a way faster hiker than I am so at about the half way point he blasted out ahead and made it to the top at a little after 10 am--  when I still had another 500 or 600 ft of vertical to go which may have taken me another 20 mins to a half hour.   So, I didn't make it to the summit but there'll be other chances.

I drank 2 quarts of water on the hike, and still lost 4 pounds.

Looking at the trail coming down from San Miguel Mtn.  Otay Lake, where I hiked last week, on the left in the distance.