Glennda's hike report from California

Here's an update from Glennda...

Hi Nancy,

Here is my report for last weekend. My service puppy that I raised graduated in Oceanside, California as a hearing dog on Friday. On Saturday, Cathy McNair, Andy (who we stayed with) and myself went on a hike out of San Diego. 2000 foot elevation and 8.2 mile hike and it was quite warm, with no shade. Great workout for me. I look like crap in this picture, but I was out there hiking still. This was at Lake Poway (actually a reservoir that you cannot swin in!) and the hike is to the cell phone towers. We saw lots of lizards and 1 gardner snake. No beautiful mountains, trees and lakes like up here in the Northwest.

And an additional note/picture from Cathy McNair...

Just to add to the blog....the hike was from Lake Poway to the summit of Mount Woodson, and was actually about 7.2 miles RT. You should have seen Glennda kick into over drive near the summit when her asprins kicked in, and later come to a screeching halt when she saw the snake. ;-) In addition to the cell phone towers, there are good views in all directions. We couldn't quite see the ocean due to the marine layer, but part way down it pushed back enough to make out the coast line near La Jolla. In addition to the snake and lizards we also saw a creepy-looking Jerusalem cricket aka potato bug (see the attached photo; it's about the size of a thumb, yuck). Our recovery consisted of coffee, chocolate milk and beach time watching the surfers. Definitely not your typical NW hike.