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El Capitan Open Space Preserve
May17th 2008
Elevation Gain/Loss : 4000ft
Round Trip Mileage : 11 miles
Report
We chose the wrong day to do this hike, the day when the forecast was for the hottest day in San Diego, it was 104 Degrees by the time we ended the hike. Nevertheless we dared the hike, as this was a schedule we wanted to stick to gear ourselves up for the hike up to Half Dome @ Yosemite. We did not want to fail ourselves. After some recent hikes, we thought we could stand up to this hike. 7 Of us started out on this hike at 7am in the morning. The temperature was still cool. This is a hike that is good to train yourselves, a lot of ups and downs along the way. The trail was full of scrubs, bushes and other semi-desert vegetation. We were all prepared for the hike. The hike starts off on an old mine road, 5 minutes in to the hike after a well laid concrete road, we hit a dirt road, that will be our friend for the rest of the hike towards the end of the trail to the El Cajon Mountain's Summit. All of us were mentally prepared and ready to stretch our physical limits to reach our goal. On the way we saw some people doing reconstruction of the trail. We passed a campsite where they were camped ( I think so ). The views up to the summit were not scenic. Scenery was also not on top of our minds, the only thing which was probably on our minds, is how long can I go, how far can I go etc. so that we dont mess up our planned trip to the Half Dome.
We reached the top of the summit in around 4Hrs. On reaching the summit, we were all relieved and happy and very joyful. We took pictures, ate food, took a nap, took some water and refreshed ourselves to trace back our steps to reach our cars. Less did we know what was ahead of us and how difficult it would be to reach our car. Before we left we did a quick check on the amount of water we had with us and started off on our adventure. Around 40minutes into the walk back, we had the temperatures soaring up, I could feel it on my head. After around 1Hr into our return trip, one of us was dehydrated, luckily I had some Oral Rehydration salts with me, so was able to give him some fluids with salts. He rested for sometime and was up walking for some time. Still he would not make it to the trailhead and we had more than 4miles left to the trail head. We tried our luck asking the people doing the construction, if they could give a ride on their car to the trailhead. We were refused 3times, we were about to call 911 but asked one more time, when the gentleman who appeared to be their boss said that he would be ok giving our friend a ride back down the trail head; relieved now we re-started to head down our long hike back. It was still not an easy walk back, and one of those walks which I will remember for long. The reason I said I will remember this is because, it was one of those days which proved how relentless nature can be, and how helpless can a human be in such an environment, all our ventures to fight mother nature are futile, all we can do is go along with the flow of nature, and try to co-exist with the nature... ( Got carried away a bit ). Anyway, we continued on our hike back, a couple of naps on the way and gulping every single drop of water everyone of us had with us, we treaded our path back towards our car. The very sight of the trail head rejuvenated us, and started walking at double-speed, in no time we were at our cars.
At the end of the hike couple of lessons learnt which I think should be kept in mind when venturing unknown
terrains.
- Never Underestimate the hike
- Never Overestimate yourself
- Learn to judge your capabilities
- Have the strength to turn back, when you think you cannot make it anylonger
- Always be overprepared. Do not assume the conditions, be prepared for the worst of conditions
- Always carry extra water and food
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