Volcan Mountain Preserve

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I found a few hiking groups through an organization called Meetup. You can check them out yourself at meetup.com. Anyway there are groups for just about everything you can think of and I joined some for hiking.

A trip organizer scheduled a hike at Volcan Mountain Preserve and there were nine of us that signed up to attend.

Volcan Mountain Preserve is in San Diego County, about two miles north of the town of Julian.

Six of us meet in a park-n-ride lot to carpool to the trail head. Two others came from the north and one drove up alone.

It was just over a hour to drive to the trailhead and the four of us in my car got to know each other while I drove.

We met the rest of the group, made introductions, and started up the trail at 9:30.

At the entrance to the Preserve is a impressive wood and iron sculpture and a time capsule that is not scheduled to be opened until 2100, a few years from now.








I'm glad that we had a early start on the trail because the first part is mostly uphill. On a hot day some of the fun would be lost.

There were cool, shaded areas to hike thru also.

There was a sign on the trail about this old structure. It turns out that Volcan Mtn was considered as a place for the Hale telescope. It was decided that Palomar Mtn, 25 miles to the north was the best place to install the telescope, but it took a few years. This is all that is left of one of the cabins that was built to house the decision makers at the time.

After about an hour we were at the top. The first thing you see is some sort of tower.

A little bit further is a memorial bench with a lot of animals wood burned into it. It is beautiful to say the least, and a great place to rest and look out over the Banner Grade.







There is a chain link fence around the tower but that doesn't stop people from squeezing thru the gate and climbing the tower.

Below are views looking to the north and the east.

The trail up is a graded dirt road. On the way down we took a side trail that was pretty much single file. The views of the valley were terrific.

Total trip time was 3 hours ( we were at the top about an hour )

Total miles 5.4

Would I do it again? Yes

MeetUp Hike - Volcan Mountain at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail: GPS Trip Sharing with Google Maps

Blue Sky Ecological Reserve to Lake Ramona

This is the sign at the entrance to the Blue Sky Ecological Reserve. It is located in Poway CA on the east side of Espola Rd just before it makes a turn to the west and heads towards Rancho Bernardo.

The Reserve was closed for almost a year after the Witch Creek Fire roared through in October 2007. This was to help the area re-grow a little and to give the workers time to clear away some of the downed trees.

The area has made a comeback and someday will be just as beautiful as it was before the fire.

I was the first to place any Geocaches in the area after it was re-opened. There are lots of hiding places around but trail rules ask that you stay on the established trails, so options are limited for placements.

I needed to go out to replace one of my cache containers that was sun damaged so that was the reason for this hike today.

There is a new parking lot with tables and interpretive displays. Parking lot hours are, June-October, 6:30am - sunset, November-May, sunrise - sunset.

There are different kinds of guided hikes through the Reserve led by docents on most weekends. More information can be had from the web site, www.poway.org/bluesky

This is the first view of the trail leading into Blue Sky. No bicycles are allowed on the trails but it is a access road, and sometimes there will be a utility vehicle on the road.

Fire ravaged trees along the trail.

Beautiful shaded area along the trail

At the .9mi mark is the turn off to the trail that leads to Poway Lake to the south. It is a hike of 1.2 miles to Lake Poway from here.

A little past the turn off to Lake Poway the trail bends to the left and starts to head up to Lake Ramona and the dam. Below, you can see the dam between the two mountains.

The hike up to the dam is fairly steep, but once again, it is a road that is used by service vehicles so it is well maintained.

When you get towards the base of the dam the road is paved, untill you reach the top. There is one long steep strech along the front of the dam that brings you up to the top.






View of Lake Ramona from top of dam.













View of Lake Poway and the road up.

I had never hiked around Lake Ramona and didn't know if it could be done. While I was on the trail I asked a Ramona Water Authority worker if there were trails around the lake, he said yes and gave me a small trail map. So, since I didn't have anything better to do I decided to find out what the trails were like around the lake. I continued left across the top of the dam and was able to stay on a well maintained dirt road to about the half way point.


View of the lake from the road.













After leaving the road and following a small trail, I was able to make my way down to the farthest point from the dam. It was noisy with croaking frogs behind me when I took this picture.

The small trail that I was following along the lake is used by fishermen as seen by all the discarded fishing line, bait and various drink containers along the way. Overall very trashy.





I was tring to follow what looked like a trail and sometimes it seemed to be barely wide enough to walk on.

This is a look back at part of the trail, if you were to slip, you would be in the lake.

Once was enough for this trail and I won't suggest that anyone goes along on this side of the lake. I wouldn't be supprised if I was on private property more than once. For sure at the end, when I reached the dam again, since I needed to exit past a no tresspassing sign.

After you head down into Blue Sky again and are heading back to the parking area there is a small offshoot trail that is called the Creekside Trail.

POISON OAK is all around so STAY ON THE TRAILS.

Remember:
"LEAVES OF THREE, LEAVE IT BE"





Oak grove













Trip time: 3hrs 22min
Length: 8.5 miles

Blue Sky and around Lake Ramona at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging

Lake Poway Trail

For a while now I have been wanting to do a little something about the trail around Lake Poway. It seems that I start or stop some of my hikes from there, so to let others know about this gem, here goes.

I got up early on January 1st 2009 to hike around the lake and take some pictures.



Lake Poway is located at the eastern end of Lake Poway Rd off Espola Rd in Poway CA.

The lake is normally open from sunrise to sunset and there is a small entrance fee for non-residents of Poway. It is hit and miss if they are collecting the fee or not.

There is plenty of grass, picnic tables and play areas to keep everybody happy. They have a snack bar and fishing boats for rent if that is what you want to do.

I started my hike at the snack bar and went south on the trail around the lake. The trails are well maintained, but sometimes closed just after heavy rains to clean them back up again.



After you leave the snack bar and walk to the south end of the lake the trail starts to climb and soon you reach the highest point on the trail.



There are portable toilets around for about the first half of the hike around the lake.

At about the 1/3 point is the turn off that leads to Mt.Woodson, Warren Canyon, and Fry-Koegel trails.





When you get to the dam end, the trail heads down a series of switchbacks that eventually puts you at the base of the dam. There is another trail that meets the Lake Poway trail at about the 2/3 mark. It leads down to a campground and connects to the Blue Sky, and Ramona Dam trails.



Here is a view of Ramona Dam at the end of Blue Sky Eclogical Perserve.



Once you get to the top of the dam, the trail splits off to the north. This section of the trail isn't used much but it adds a little mileage and brings you to a good view point at the top of a hill a little off the trail.



The trail merges back with the original trail and taking the left fork will lead back to the parking lot.

Total mileage for this trip is about 3.2 miles.

ENJOY!!

Lake Poway Recreation Area at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging

Mt Woodson trail map

Mt Woodson at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging

Mt. Woodson trail

Today, in the San Diego area, we were forcasted to have Santa Ana weather conditions. This means clear skies and winds from the east.

I planned a hike up to Mt Woodson today because of the clear skies and my wife was going to be busy in the morning. I talked her into dropping me at the trailhead on Highway 67 by the Forest Service Fire Station and picking me up at Lake Poway when I finished. It was a cool morning at about 42 degrees when she let me out of the car. There were about 10 to 15 other cars parked along the highway, so others had started earlier than me at 8am. I was going to be doing some geocaching along the trail so I had my GPS and notes on what to look for. The trail/road to the top of Mt. Woodson is paved all the way to the top for the different agencies that service the radio towers at the top.

The trail starts at an elevation of 1656 ft. and rises quickly to 2876 ft. at the top, for a gain of 1400 ft. in just about 2.5 miles.

The hike down the other side has a loss of 1950 ft. but it takes 4 miles so it's not so bad.

Mt. Woodson was called by the indians "The Mountain of Moonlit Rocks" and the trail winds it's way through boulders that are bigger than my house.

I normally do my hiking on the weekdays and when I keep running into people on weekends it reminds me how crowded the trail can become on Saturdays and Sundays. All the people I meet on the trails are friendly and happy to chat while walking.

After I reached the peak and started heading down to Lake Poway the trail gets really nice. You find yourself walking through low chaparral and more boulders.

The rock to the left is know as "Potato Chip Rock". I have seen pictures of people standing on the chip. Total length of the chip is about 40 ft. so it is much larger than it shows in the picture.

A view of Ramona Dam

I can see all the way to Point Loma!

End of the trail is on the left side of the grass.

This is a nice picture of Lake Poway.

I logged 6.5 miles and found 7 geocaches.

The temperature at the end of my hike was about 70 degrees. So, it was a comfortable hike the whole trip.

Fry-Koegel Trail Map

I had been asked to post a map of my hike.
Fry-Koegel Trail at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging

09-29-08 Fry-Koegel Trail

Hello to all that take the time to read this blog,

I had been planning to go out Geocaching on Monday for about a week. The mornings leading up to this had been foggy and that is the kind of day I was looking forward to.

The trail I wanted to hike was one that I hadn't been on before called the Fry-Koegel trail. It is mostly on the north side of Mt Woodson between Poway and Ramona in CA.

I didn't want to have to hike out and back on the same trail so I had to do so planning. I asked my wife to drop me off at the trail head and planned to have my mom pick me up when I finished at an unknown time.

As it turned out when we woke up in the morning the news was reporting areas in the county with rain and lightning. S0, no fog in sight. After a few claps of thunder my mom called and asked if I was still going out. I said that I had heard the thunder too, but that the news said it was mostly over the ocean.

After breakfast, I finished getting my pack ready and loaded my stuff in the car. On the drive over to the lake all the streets were wet but it wasn't raining.

When we arrived at Poway Lake at 6:45 the gate to the parking lot was still closed, so I grabbed my stuff and got out of car to wait by the gate until opening time of 7:00. I had seen on the Poway Lake web site that the trails were open from sunrise to sunset, sunrise was 6:45 today so I was ready to head in even though the gate was closed.

About that time a Park Ranger drove down to open the gate. When I told her I was going to be out on the trails, she said "Oh, you're going to get muddy out there". But that it was better than her job of picking up the trash around the lake.

There were still lightning to the northwest of were I was and the sky to the east was clear. As I was walking from the gate to the trail head I looked back around and saw a rainbow.

As I headed out and around the south side of the lake I stopped a few more times to take a few more pictures.
As I walk around this side of the lake I see only that it has rained but not enough to cause any mud to speak of. About a 1/3 of the way around the lake is the cut off that leads up to Mt.Woodson peak and the Fry-Koegel trails.

About half way up this grade I was watching the sun poke it's way out of the clouds in front of me.After about 3/4 of a mile I came to the trails I was looking for, up until this time I had been on the Warren Canyon Trail. I had hiked this one a while ago but had to go out and back on the same trail.

Here is a view of some of the trails I had been on so far this morning. As you can see I am gaining elevation at a pretty good pace.

This view below is about as high as I got today.

Of course, I was stopping along the trail to pick up a few Geocaches that were hidden along the way. I found a total of 7 on this hike, everything from an ammo box, to a M&M tube tucked behind a tree branch. This brings my total finds to 444 with 16 of my own caches placed in the hills and area around Poway.

The trail on the north side of Mt Woodson flattens out and meanders through bolders and oak trees. Some of trees were destroyed in the fires but are still standing. This side of the mountian must not have had any rain because the trails were dry and dusty.
There is a cache near here. The guy that placed it said that the huge flat rock reminded him of a patio and all that was missing was a pair of lawn chairs.

After the "Patio Rock" the trail leads thru more Oak trees and a lot of POISON OAK and IVY.

The trail ends by following a post fence that separates the trail from some BIG backyards then finally finishes at Mt. Woodson golf course.

I had a good time and logged 6.25 miles.