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.