My first experience with snow in San Diego was being 8 years old and going to Mount Laguna. I ran onto a snow covered field were I was promptly hit and landed on a person who had been hauling ass down a hill on an inner tube. It was funny, don’t get me wrong, but it was also a little traumatizing. However, as an adult I have begun to appreciate snow. Especially when I am looking at it from a warm place or pelting people with chunks of it. To expand my hiking experiences, I thought it would be really nice to hike a trail of fresh snow. I was wrong.
There had been a ton of rain that dumped down on San Diego county so we decided to go see pretty, pretty snow on Mount Laguna. Travis, Mike, Jen, and myself met up at Penny Pines trailhead. We got there around 8:45 am so there wasn’t really any traffic on the mountain which was unexpected. We parked on the side of the road and headed to the trail.
Per usual, I was nervous about hiking with other people. I know it seems ridiculous but there’s some pressure that you put on yourself as a plus size hiker to not be out of breath or to be as fast as everyone else. While I was trailing the rest of the group it was a little hard not to feel a bit deflated but I just tried to focus on the beauty around me and holy shit there was plenty of it.
There was a serenity in the landscape that was punctuated with the sound of crunchy footsteps in the snow. It was damn near perfect…until we started to walk closer to the meadow.
Lo and behold, we began to post-hole. That’s when your foot plummets straight down into the snow to varying heights. At one point I post-holed halfway up my left thigh while my right leg was sunken in to my knee. I had to crawl out with Travis yanking me by my daypack. If I thought I was slow before, post-holing every step was a thigh burning hell that made me slow as molasses. Mike and Jen were a couple of powerhouses whose “slow” pace was impressive to say the least. (Shout out to those two for being gracious and patient hiking companions and also both very good looking, therefore, pleasant to look at). Travis lumbered behind me while I was stabbing the snow with vengeance with my trekking poles while carefully navigating the bullshit. I enviously watched two backpackers wearing snowshoes hauling ass besides us and cursed myself for huffin’ and puffin’.
But, I did it. Even though our experience was shorter than anticipated, harder than expected, and partially through the hike we decided to turn back (thank god) it felt vaguely rewarding to have done something harder than I was used to even when my nerves were bugging me. Even when walking back to my car while my feet were swimming in the melted snow in my boots, my ass was on fire, and I was a little worse for the wear, it felt good pushing myself. I’m still working on the hiking insecurities but this felt like a good start to strengthen myself for future adventures.
The trail has some uphill but it’s very gradual. It was beautiful and would be absolutely lovely during the other seasons if you don’t want to trudge through the hellish snow. I definitely look forward to doing it again
Penny Pines Trail: Difficulty: 9/10 Beauty: 9/10 Mileage: ~ 3.5 miles out of 6
Thanks to Travis for being a willing co-photographer.
Big Tail on the Trail 