A nice and long but hot weekend in East County San Diego…

Saturday, I first hiked Guatay Mountain, a scenic peak near Pine Valley with a trail and fire road leading to the summit. Next, I scrambled my way up Long Valley Mountain, first walking a very drivable dirt road, then taking a route over the lower east summit, followed by some exposed class 3 moves at the higher west summit to avoid much of the brush. The brush did get me on the way down though, when I descended a tagged use trail on the south side… then I met my friend Matt Zamora out in the Laguna Mountains for some mountain biking, which turned out to be better than expected. We were amazed at the quality of the trails, promising to return another weekend with more time dedicated to just biking. We set up camp, cooking and drinking around the campfire well into the night…

Sunday, Matt and I had a leisurely breakfast before driving to and making the short hike up Sycuan Mountain. A short but steep one mile hike got us to its scenic summit, the crux being figuring out where to start. We then stopped at one of our favorite pizza chains, Filippi’s Pizza, before fighting the heat paddling Lower Otay Reservoir. We found some narrow canals leading from Otay’s northeast finger, cutting through an odd layer of plant debris before heading home…

San Diego, I shall miss you so…