This Weekend, Part 3: Hiking to Potato Chip Rock

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Well, the title is no longer right. “This weekend” was actually last weekend but last weekend was too long to kill in one post (read This Weekend, Parts 1 and 2). So “This Weekend Part 3” was last weekend because it was too long and ran past the real “this weekend”. This weekend was Thanksgiving and I had food poisoning (which is probably why I didn’t finish last weekend (entitled “This Weekend Part 3) last week). So do not be misled by the title. I don’t want to confuse anyone.

So why did I bring all this up when I could just use poetic license to write about whatever I wanted using whatever title I wanted? Because last weekend was really busy. Josie (spelled Josey in my other posts, but that is not right and I did hear about it) and I did a ton and were exhausted Saturday night. That is why I thought she was joking when she said she wanted to hike to Potato Chip Rock on Sunday (which was last Sunday). I have to be honest with you, I thought she was kidding. To hike to Potato Chip Rock, we were going to have to get up early, hike a total of seven miles over a moderately challenging trail and get back to do laundry. I really didn’t see it happening.

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Imagine my surprise when Josie woke up at 7 AM and was ready (actually dressed and ready, makeup and everything) to walk out of the apartment. I was ready too but not to hike. I did not bring hiking clothes over. I only had jeans, Converse All-Stars and a long sleeve shirt (I didn’t shower so I still had the faint aroma of Calvin Klein cologne). I also had my GoPro to record the entire event.

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First matter was to find this place. Josie and I fly by the seat of our pants. Planning is seen as a weakness. But we always change our tune when we have to actually get into a car a go someplace. Combine our lack of planning with my lack of a sense of direction and Josie never listening to me and trips can be quite interesting. I believe the formula looks like this:

LoP*(MLoSoD+JNLtM)=Screwed^2

Not sure if that is the right formula but it looks very Einstein-ian and is kind of funny, so I’ll go with it.

Well, even with Google maps telling us where to go, we missed the trail head twice. I gave Josie crap for not listening to me. When we got out of the car, I was lost. We saw a lot of people walking and Josie wanted to follow them. I wasn’t so sure. So, like any man would, I asked for directions. Luckily, we found a guy whose sense of direction was worse than mine and we got to walk a mile before we found out we went in the wrong direction.

As you can imagine, Josie was completely satisfied with the life choice she made having me as her long term boyfriend. She was so happy at her decisions that she refused to talk to me for the first mile up. Oh, and I mean “up”.

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There were two ways to reach Mount Woodson Peak which is where Potato Chip Rock is located: Mount Woodson Trail or Mount Woodson Road. We went up Mount Woodson Road. Though it was fire road and not as “pioneer” as the trail, it was shorter and far steeper. The first mile was a tough climb. We had to stop a few times to catch our breaths. Though the day was cool, we warmed up quickly.

The road then turned into switchbacks on a hard packed trail. Very forgiving terrain but still steep. Also, very beautiful. We found ourselves stopping, not from exhaustion, but to admire the rock formations and the beautiful view. We also enjoyed picking out recognizable spots to see our progress. I was elated by the fact that, though the climb was tough, the hike down was going to be fast and easy (well, easy-ish).

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Josie was so enamored by the beautiful view and awesome formations that she started talking to me again. Or maybe she was just tired and wanted to bitch at someone. Who knows or cares. She wasn’t mad at me anymore. We started having a good time. We enjoyed the view and took pictures. We were having fun.

We finally reached Mount Woodson Peak (which was a a group of cell phone towers or whatever the stuck on mountains). I won’t lie, it was anticlimactic. But we were only a short walk to our goal.

When we got to Potato Chip Rock, talk about anticlimactic. People were everywhere. The rock was awesome. Never saw anything like it. But the line to actually step on the rock was huge (probably thirty people deep). Usually, reaching the goal of a climb led to elation and accomplishment. Well, it felt like waiting in line at Disneyland. It was kind of disappointing. What was worse was that all those people did not see the accomplishment. They saw an opportunity to take a selfie. Sad.

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Josie was annoyed too. She decided to walk beyond the rock and look at the view from the other side. We took a picture together. It was actually the nicest part of our hike (it was a good hike). The walk down was what I expected. Very fast. Though our knees took a beating. We did get to see some people practicing their rock climbing. That was fun to watch.

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It has been a long time since I have had a weekend like this. It will be one for the books. Below is a video of the two hour hike. I sped it up and condensed it to just over nine minutes. Enjoy!

 

 

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