Hiked 2012.053 -- Carbon Canyon Regional Park to Gilman Peak, Chino Hills State Park

Hiked Monday, July 30.

This was my last hike of July, leaving me at 53. I would still need to average nearly ten hikes a month for the rest of the year to reach another century. It'll be tough, particularly with the additional part-time job.

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera for this hike. Fortunately, it's mostly over land I had covered before. In fact, I was largely trying to finish a hike I wanted to have done June 18. (Goodness, but time flies! I was thinking this was just a few weeks ago. No wonder I was so frustrated at not being able to fit this one in earlier!). The few shots with this blog post were taken with my camera, and it took me about 18 months to finally get them off my phone and to this blog.

Turns out I actually got closer to my goal last time than I thought. The trail that comes in from the northwest must not be very obvious, because I didn't see it when I passed it, again. But, looking back, I could see the trail coming up from below, so I clearly passed the merge point on both hikes. Gilman still seemed over a mile from this point, though. Overall, from Carbon Canyon Regional Park to Gilman Peak was just about 90 minutes for me, walking at a swift (for me) pace. Minimal stops, but I didn't need them. There was a wonderful, cooling breeze along most of the way. It was in sharp contrast to my June hike, and one of those days you hope will never end, when you just walk and smile and think of how lucky you are to be able to be doing what you're doing at that very moment.

The return leg, down to Telegraph Trail, then back east to Carbon Canyon, also took just about 90 minutes. The descent down to Telegraph was slower, partially because it can be steep in parts and partly because the dried thistle and other annuals crowded tightly around the trail. No ticks, again, so that was good.

Once on Telegraph, it's a long but mostly flat (slight descent) all the way back to Carbon Canyon. Dried grass and a few trees covered the hills on either side of me.

I saw a couple of pods of quail along the way. Lots of lizards. One HUGE tarantula up on the North Ridge Trail, and also one large cow, also on the North Ridge Trail.

As noted above, there are only a few pictures to go with this post. The tarantula and cow were funny, thought. Alternatively, the views from the North Ridge Trail were largely covered in my June blog, which I linked above. I also have a few of part of Telegraph Trail on my blog from my first hike in Chino Hills State Park, although those were taken in February, when the park was green. The only significant greenery I saw on this hike was down along the bottom of Telegraph Canyon. There's a little bit of water still down there. Lots of poison oak there, too. I bet the deer must come out after dark to feast on that.

About eight miles for the day. Wonderful day of hiking. Probably won't be another day that cool for quite a while.