Training Hike #1: Tahquitz Peak

I'm doing a bit of catch up here.  When I started this blog we had already done 4 training hikes starting in October.

Our first hike was Tahquitz Peak in the San Jacinto Mountains from the Devil's Slide parking lot.  Round trip distance is 8 or 9 miles.  The rangers said it was 8 but some other websites said it was 9.  The elevation gain was 2500 feet so about 500 ft per mile.  The top of the peak is at 8,828 ft. There were patches of snow the last few hundred feet before the top on the northern face of the peak. There is a lookout tower at the top.  Amazing views and a great place to have lunch.

We were shooting for 2 miles an hour so it was a good workout for us.  We made it up and back in 4.5 hours, so if it was indeed 9 miles, we made our goal.  We did stay at the top for about half and hour for lunch.

We drove up to Idylwild on Friday evening, spent the night and hiked on Saturday.  When we got back we were pretty sore, but the B and B we stayed at had a jacuzzi tub, so that was great!  We drove back on Sunday morning.  It was a great trip and a great first hike!  I didn't get good pictures of the mountain though because my camera broke.  All I got were pictures of my husband and I that I took on my cell phone.  Actually, my current profile picture is from that hike. Hopefully I will have some pictures to post from our next hike. 

I found a couple of good websites with information about this hike:
http://www.localhikes.com/Hikes/TahquitzDS_4472.asp
http://www.summitpost.org/tahquitz-peak/151446