Exploring San Elijo Lagoon

July 2013

On San Diego North County, at the city of Encinitas, there's a preserve area called San Elijo Lagoon Ecological Reserve. It's namely a lagoon or a kind of salt marsh, which provides peaceful living conditions of variety of animals, mostly for various species of birds (some information told there's 300 different species of birds in there ...).

It's a pretty good place for human beings, too. There's a Nature Center, some self-guided trails, and especially over 5 miles of trails on the edge of the lagoon (trail map here). It seems to be popular for trail runners (no wonder it's quite flat and there aren't many flat sections near by).

Been few times there, at Nature Center and on its guided paths, but mainly on trails at lagoon itself. Going back and forth, one gets easily 15-20km at one go (plus two memory cards full of photos if one stays too long).

The east side trailhead is shadowed by massive eucalyptus trees. Trees and bushes there offer good shelter for various species of birds. Soon terrain changes and one start to see pine trees, very similar to ones at Torrey Pines.

The trail goes slightly higher than the lagoon, giving good sights across of it. Fairly easy to spot white Snowy Egrets or Great Blue Herons on grassland.

For birdwatching it's almost a paradise. As long as you've got patience staying calm and wait, you'll usually be awarded. From Hummingbirds to Ospreys, all sizes between them, various tones from almost screaming like, Woodpecker's monotonic knocking to beautiful singing.

There seems to live other species as well, signs at trailheads warn about Mountain Lions and Rattlesnakes. Former haven't met yet on live, though latter ones on multiple occasion.  A Raccoon being the latest mammal on the met-once-list.

Though thousands of cars, which roar on Interstate 5 by crossing the lagoon, bring huge noise, one doesn't notice noise once you start to observe nature there. That's an unscientific fact.

All in all, it's a pretty good place to relax, get in better shape, charge your batteries or observe nature (or do all of them). Worth visiting (every now and then). And hey, gorgeous beaches on Solana Beach and Encinitas are just a couple of minutes away.

Some random photos

More snapshots here.

Welcome!

Self-guided trail at Nature Center

2x bzzzzz

Opened up

Singing lessons

Twisted neck

Cormorant drying wings

Lunch captured!

Building a nest

Snorkeling

And you think all mammals can read this? 

Police, Police,  egg's stolen!

Shadows

A demo of Trail Running

Mourning Cloak

Anna's Hummingbird

Cooper's Hawk

Goldfinch

Forced time-out

Approaching landing

Great Blue Heron

Finch in pair

Lunch in mind

Twins

Curlew

Osprey

Raccoon

Monarch

Got it

Hiking on Cuyamaca State Park

November 2013

In East County of San Diego, between Mount Laguna and Julian lies high mountains, pine forests with old oak trees (or vice versa!) and flat meadows, all in mile high.  One pretty area there is Cuyamaca State Park, which contains miles of trails.

Spent there one beautiful day looping Cuyamaca Peak (6512 ft).

Started the hike near south shore of the Lake Cuyamaca. At first ascending a sandy old Fire Road. There was a large fire some eight months ago or so. Despite it had burnt almost everything, new plants and trees were already pushing through.

From the road switched to Sugar Pine Trail, continuing ascending towards Middle Peak.  After crossing again Fire Road the trail changed to Black Oak Trail.

The Black Oak Trail circled Middle Peak from west side, offering broad view towards mountains and hills on west and north.

Some meadows had old Black Oak trees. Here, now heading south, the trail descended and crossed Milk Ranch Road and started again to ascend towards Cuyamaca Peak.

Again the name of the trail changed, being Conejos Trail.  The trail ascended now on east slope providing views towards meadows, Lake Cuyamaca and other mountain peaks as far as on mountains on Anza-Borrego Desert State Park on east.

Finally the trail came to a small road which headed to the peak. Once arrived there, enjoyed 360 degree scenery, took some photos and ate snacks.  Even some cyclists were there which amazed me.

Descended via Lookout Road to Park HQ building, crossed the road 79 and took a fairly flat trail back to Lake Cuyamaca.  On meadow saw few Wild Turkeys. Hawks and eagles were so common view that one could not count these anymore.

There were still plenty of trails left, e.g. trails to Green Valley and the ones near Park Visitor Center. Thus, worth coming here a few times.

About gear; this was the first real test of new hiking shoes, Salomon Fellraiser. Found them really good, thin enough, providing good grip.

The Route

About 20km route (about 1000 meters in vertical altogether):

Few snapshots

Welcome!

Burnt land on Middle Peak

Black Oak trees near Milk Ranch

Lake Cuyamaca and meadows

Stonewall Peak (5730 ft)

A view towards north west from Cuyamaca Peak (6512 ft)

Measured

Chapeau!

The HQ

The US Route 79

Colour show by nature

Getting miles

Sunday Hike on Iron Mountain

May 2013

San Diego is surrounded by numerous hills on east and north. Good news is that many of them are accessible and contain good trails, for horse riding, mountain biking, trail running and for hiking.

These hills are typically few hundred meters high (vertically). Further away lies higher mountains, which offer more ascending and descending for longer trips, e.g. PCT.

Iron Mountain is a pretty popular place for day hikes on weekends. Its parking lot is full of cars at 8AM.  One motivation to arrive early is heat, which may hit you on spring, summer and autumn time.

Have visited numerous hiking trails last year and usually one thing has been common in them; there's no water available in them.

On Iron Mountain, there's about 300 meters to climb vertically on 5 km's distance. Trails are in good condition. One cannot escape heat, there's no shadow any place near. So, either leave early, or pick up a cool day.

There's a nice gate welcoming you into to the trail from the parking lot. The next after the gate the trail went through a tree alley.  At first the trail is is quite wide and dead straight, until it started to ascend more and more, having twists left and right.

Once you have climbed some time, you started to see to Ramona in east. Here the trail turned almost back to west and the final zig zag to the peak of Iron Mountain started.

Once on top, there's a pretty view in every direction.  Had some snacks and enjoyed scenery.

Back down one had to share the one and only trail until at trails junction one could select alternative route back. Even further there's a loop which circled hidden within high bushes.

Managed to get some 10km on GPS.

In overall, a good place for a day hike. Next time I'll carry more water with me.

Few snapshots

Welcome!

An Alley

Straight on

Trail runners

Zig Zag

A view towards south

Strategy meeting

Wild sage

On trail