The Potato Chip Hike

I am behind on posting!  We've been busy.  Tuesday Gayle and Jim, Suzanne and Jim and I did the hike to Potato Chip rock.  It starts at Lake Poway, which is a reservoir.  It's really pretty out there.  It was surprising to see so much water in a drought stricken area.

It's a pretty hike, but it's a steep one.  According to Suzanne's telemetry, we walked 8 miles and gained (and lost) 2,000 feet.  It was a lot of hike for me.  The last couple of miles going downhill were painful.

Notice how the rock looks like a potato chip?  Hence the name.

It's a major site for photo ops.  If you use google images and search for potato chip rock, you'll see all kinds of people doing all kinds of crazy stuff out there.  This is what it looks like as you prepare to walk out there.  

 I have over come much of my fear of heights.  I was doing ok as I walked out on to the rock.  Then I started thinking about how would I get down.  Going back the way I came was not an option, because there is a jump down from one rock to the other.  The other return was sliding down the side below the chip.

It was unfortunate that I started thinking about how to get down, because I got a little brain lock and did not fully enjoy my time on the rock.  I did not deploy my camera either.  Thanks to Suzanne and Gayle for photos.

Suzanne was able to fully enjoy her time on the rock and posed looking rather relaxed about the whole thing.

This is a big rock.  Notice the Jims to the left of it, offering perspective on its size.

After hiking there was a trip to Karl Strauss brewing.  They have tasting flights of beer and food.  Jim and I split a black bean burger that was really really good.  We were starving.

This was the longest hike I've done, probably ever.  The last couple of days have been painful in the quads and calves.  It definitely suggests that anything longer is currently off the table for me.  One wonders if one could build up to more mileage, or not.
After happy hour, we tried to get home.  I thought Seattle had bad traffic, but I was mistaken.  San Diego has Seattle beat.  All the approach ramps to the freeways were gridlocked because the freeways were not moving.  We attempted an surface street return, but were defeated by not really knowing the area.