Hiking Into the Storms

We took Jane's parents up into the Cuyamaca Mountain range for a 10.5 mile hike along the East Mesa Wilderness Area, a beautiful range of trails averaging 5,000 feet in elevation that wind across varied topography and through multiple ecosystems - chaparral, meadow and grasslands, oak and pine forests, riparian zones, arid canyons. The Cuyamacas were devastated by the October 2003 Cedar Fire, and the once-thick and mature forests of the park are now forever gone. The undergrowth has sprung back, of course, and there is hope that some of the alders and sycamores will eventually return. Still, the burned ghost forests have an eerie beauty of their own.

We braved the mountains on a day when temperatures were barely into the 50s and the county was being impacted by the first heavy rains of the winter season. The predicted mudslides and possible snowfall ended up missing the mountains, leaving us a bit wind-swept and chilly but dry. Along with woodpeckers, ravens and a variety of jays and songbirds, we spotted a large herd of deer ambling between the meadow and the oak groves. But perhaps the best part of the hike was enjoying the silence, the damp air, the dew dripping from the trees, and the ominous dark rain-heavy clouds that loomed ahead during the entire 5 hour journey.