Outside San Diego

Occasionally, one gets a glimpse of what was.  This last weekend was just one of those times, and that fleeting moment where the past and present merge was both exhilarating and exasperating.  I spent the weekend in the San Mateo Canyon Wilderness, and it is (in comparison to what once was) a little piece of  Southern California, only lightly touched by civilization.  I say little, but with the inclusion of Camp Pendleton to the west it appears to be a massive swath of unspoiled coastal chaparral, and riparian canyon bottoms stretching all the way to the ocean.  As I crested the peak on the North Tenaja trail, I looked west and was presented with a view that is just about extinct in the area; an unspoiled view to the ocean.

I was fortunate to be tag along a weekend jaunt to the San Mateo Wilderness Area, in the Cleveland National Forest, as part of a make-up trip for the WBC’s desert/mountain backpack requirement.  We had a small but cohesive group on this trip who all worked together and had a great time.   The terrain of Tenaja canyon was just different enough from my recent treks in the Anza-Borrego desert, and snow camp that it makes the overnighter fun and interesting.   The teeming flora and fauna was such a bonus, and the perfect hiking weather made the trip.  The thick poison oak lining the low area of the trail were a concern, but so far I do not have any signs of a reaction to it.  I hope my fellow hikers did not get it too bad.