Читать книгу 50 Best Short Hikes: San Diego онлайн

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DESCRIPTION

South of the spreading suburbs that cluster along CA 78, a scruffy ridgeline scrapes the southern sky. Topographic maps note the obscure names of its various high points: Cerro de las Posas, Double Peak, Franks Peak, and Mount Whitney (not that Whitney but still the highest of the group). Double Peak, our destination on this hike, is the most hiker-friendly. Its summit lies within a City of San Marcos regional/interpretive park that takes full advantage of the peak’s panoramic view. When the park was completed in 2009, it became possible to drive all the way to the summit from the San Elijo Hills housing development on the south side. Our chosen route, however, goes up Double Peak’s mostly undeveloped north slope and capitalizes on a roughly 1,000-foot elevation change. That is appealing, of course, only if you’re amenable to a bit of vigorous exercise.

THE ROUTE

You begin at Lakeview Park next to a small reservoir called Discovery Lake. A flat 0.8-mile trail, popular with everyone from runners to parents pushing strollers, loops around the lake. Our way to Double Peak, though, takes you across the lake’s dam to a paved, traffic-free maintenance road heading south and sharply up a hillside through chaparral vegetation. Numbered white trail signs are located at key points all the way up, including at trail junctions and street crossings. Simply head in the direction of the red arrows labeled DOUBLE PEAK TRAIL. Soon, you go into and then out of a hillside residential development. Just continue uphill toward a large, hillside water tank. Just shy of the tank, turn left on a fenced dirt path and climb very steeply through chaparral nicely recovering from the last big fire in 1996. North-slope vegetation such as this requires about 40 years of growth to reach a climax stage, and this stand is on its way.