Cuyamaca Hike

On Saturday, June 16, we went on a hike in the Cuyamaca area. It wasn't very nice. It mostly felt like a long, tedious, hot death march. We did get to hang out at a river, which is always nice, but we weren't equipped to get in it. Better luck next time.

As we set off, Ever wanted to carry Tiny. Jim took this:

At the trail, Ever's excitement turned to pain before I could get a decent picture of the two of them.

We lunched by the water, and again there were irritating squirrels that really wanted our food. (Behind Ever's head.)

After lunch, there was some touching of the water.

They started getting more and more into it. Tiny just wanted to jump right in.

Finally Wren tried to get giardia.

As we were heading out of the water area, I set my phone down on an indentation in a giant slab above the river. Then as I was climbing up, I knocked my phone, and it slid down, down, down, down, down the rock. I thought it would stop when it hit a ledge, but it didn't; it just went all the way down into a filthy, mossy pool. I couldn't even get to it from where I was because the rock was too steep. I stood above it hemming and hawing and wondering if I should just leave it there. A man offered to help. He hopped down the rocks and over to the other side of the little pool and plucked it out. I said there was no way it would work again. I was bummed about losing all my pictures, as I hadn't uploaded to my computer for a long time. He said, "You'd be surprised." He said his wife had dropped her iPhone in water many times, and 50% of the time it came back to life after being left in rice to dry. He said the key is not to try to turn it on until it's totally dry; leave it longer in the rice than you think it needs. When we got home hours later, I took my phone apart (a cheap LG phone, not an iPhone) and put the pieces in rice. Miraculously, when I put it together and turned it on the next day, it worked. My little phone lived, and no pictures were lost in the making of this hike.

The walk from the river to the car was pure drudgery.

Jim thought that once we reached the road, we were going to have to walk a mile or two to the car. (I had no thoughts, as I had no idea where we were.) He offered to run to the car and drive back to get the rest of us. We were incredibly relieved to discover that the car was right there where the trail hit the road. 

I tried not to let the girls know how much I was not enjoying it, but that was not a hike we will repeat. A swing and a miss.