Hiking Iron Mountain

“Somewhere between the bottom of the climb and the summit is the answer to the mystery why we climb.” – Greg Child

Last night Adam surprised me with an early birthday gift — a CamelBak for use during my outdoor workouts! It’s a backpack that you fill with water and can continuously drink from. This was a perfect little gift, as I’m always thirsty and drink an insane amount of water, especially during exercise. What a smart man I married!

Wanting to put my new workout gear to use, today my little family and I headed to a nearby town called Poway to hike somewhere we had never been to before, Iron Mountain.

In reading reviews of the mountain prior to going, I had seen a few time estimates at 4 hours. My first thought was that there is no way Harley would last that long, as she has crazy amounts of energy but not so much endurance. The summit we hike a lot usually takes 90 minutes roundtrip, and that really tires her out. But once I read a review of a 79-year old man saying he did it in 3 hours both ways, I decided that we should give it a shot (and if a 79-year old can do the hike, Harley should be able to do it right?!).

Adam and I guesstimated that we could do the 7 mile roundtrip hike in about 2 hours. In the end, I clocked the excursion at around 2 1/2 hours — 1 hour and 15 minutes to climb up, 15 minutes of hanging out at the top, and a few minutes over an hour getting back down.

Based on what I had read, I expected the trail to be super crowded, especially since we went on a Saturday and didn’t get there until 11 am. Compared to the very popular Cowles Mountain, I didn’t think that Iron Mountain was too packed at all. I was pleasantly surprised that we easily got a parking spot in the lot, after reading in reviews that the lot stays filled up from 7 am on.

As far as the puppy goes, I’m happy to report that Harley did a pretty good job on the way up. On the descend, she kept trying to lay down and kind of reached her breaking point at the very end, but we made it! The three of us had a great hike together:

I think that last photo is pretty hilarious.

When we got back to the parking lot, Harley kept oddly sticking her face underneath our car. We thought maybe she was just tired and looking for shade, but I peered underneath near my back tire to see a face staring back at me that looked like this…

A muskrat! I’m not going to lie, my heart might have skipped a beat (or two or three). Looking from the back of my car, all I could see was its long tail coming out. Yikes, I get the creeps just looking at a photo of one of these big rodents. Adam had to move the car around for a minute for it to finally jump down (I may or may not have been squealing) and then hit the ground running. Adam thinks the muskrat must of had something wrong with him to be so close to humans during the day like that. All I know is that I’m glad that Harley didn’t get bit when her face was looking right at him underneath the car. A trip to the vet would not have been my idea of a good end to our hike!

I love hiking because I get to workout, be outdoors enjoying the weather, give Harley some exercise, and spend time with Adam all at once. It’s kind of awesome! I definitely enjoyed Iron Mountain and would go again. The hike is pretty long but not too difficult, and is just a steady incline and nice walk pretty much the whole time.

I think the hike tired us all out, as I’m currently blogging while resting my achy feet, Harley is curled up passed out, and Adam is laying on the floor watching a movie. I plan to continue relaxing until our dinner date tonight. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!