On Sunday Jenn and I embarked on our 2nd hiking excursion of the summer. We chose Peters Canyon in the Orange Hills back in the hills behind the Orange County Mining Company. This hike was listed as an easier one than the one we did 2 weeks ago but we both disagreed with that..BIG TIME! Although the elevation was only 250 feet and the hike was the same distance this one seemed a bit different and there were reasons why.
As we started out on the hike it was moderate with no elevation gain. We did get to some scenery about 1/4 mile in and as a bike rider rode by us he asked if we saw that snake back there but we missed it, bummer. Right off the bat though I could tell this hike was going to be more scenic than the previous one and that was refreshing, I'm all about the scenicness of the hike, is that even a word?
As we curved around Skylark Trail we came upon a quick sorta steep uphill climb. Our hike didn't take us up on this incline but my wife the adventurer she is said "lets do it" so we did. A 1000 heartbeats and a few minutes later we reached the top and sat on a bench for a minute or two while we got some water before descending back where we were originally supposed to go on our trail. As we reached that point we entered on to Cactus Point Trail where we emerged out on to a wonderful view of the lake. See pic!
Cactus Point Trail brought us back at about the 85% point marker of where we took that extra excursion up the steep climb so once we got there, there was even more to look forward to. What the map cannot show you is the downhill drop and even steeper but shorter uphill stint that followed the first one and that one was probably more difficult from the eyes point of view than the actual hike because it was much shorter but still difficult. See pictures of if below.
After that point we descended down a pretty gradual at first but then steep downhill climb in amongst Cactus and I thought that was one of the most scenic parts of the trail.
We then curved around and up a little bit and got onto the Peters Canyon Trail portion where bee's and bugs were especially aggressive, they must have loved my sunscreen but it wasn't fun for me, haha. After that we went downhill a little bit and walked through the most shaded part of the hike which I loved. See pic below.
Once we returned back the hike last 1:02 total and that included out extra little excursion up that one hill. I would say it was about a 2.7 mile total and it was well worth it. I loved this hike and besides the Topanga Canyon hike we have gone on twice this was by far the most scenic and the most challenging. I cannot wait for next weeks hike whatever it may be.
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