By: Kevin
There are plenty of options around southern California for those who enjoy hiking! The mountains to the east of San Diego offer some wonderful views of the countryside. The urban interfaces also allow some interesting hikes along the edges of civilization while still being in nature. We have taken a number of hikes and treks since arriving in San Diego back in March. Some have been simple 1-2 mile hikes all the way up to a hike through the mountains that was pushing 12 miles and was threatening darkness by the time we made it back to our starting point. We have all upgraded our hiking boots since arriving in California to meet the challenges of some trails, and to help guard against being struck by snakes should we stumble across them during our hikes.
There are also a few “truck trails” through the mountains along the Mexico border which offer great scenic views and a decent challenge to the Border Patrol enforcement efforts. While exploring one of these truck trails we even received text messages saying “Welcome to Mexico!” when our cell phones connected to the closest cell tower, which was on the Mexico side of the border. You can see from this map just how close we were to the border. Lucky for us, our blonde-haired blue-eyed kids would not likely be mistaken for illegal border crossers.
Last night we met up with other families at Cowles Mountain for a Full Moon Family Fun Hike organized by MWR, the Navy Morale Welfare and Recreation office. We started at 6:45pm and finished around 8:45pm. This gave us plenty of light for the ascent to the top of Cowles Mountain, then we watched the sunset and moon rise from the summit while drinking water and a having a quick snack. We made our way back down the mountain trail via moonlight and the occasional flashlight beam for harder to walk areas of the trail. The only injury we incurred was a scraped knee and finger when Heather took a spill after her boot laces hooked each other and didn’t allow her foot to move forward any more, effectively hobbling her. The view of the moon and the city lights below were beautiful and oddly peaceful, even while surrounded by over a hundred other night hikers.
The Ready Rovers 