Kwaay Paay Summit

VIEW OF WEST SIDE OF KWAAY PAAY PEAK

           Do you ever feel like shooting for the moon? Apparently I did when I set this entirely unrealistic goal for myself: hike my way through Jerry Schad’s Afoot and Afield in San Diego. This goal, of course, is in addition to the “Badass Lifestyle List.” Right. And, all of this in the year that I should be finishing my teaching credential program and looking for a job? Right.  Sure. Ok, enough self-doubt, on to the rationale and first hiking re-cap. I’ve often thought that it would be cool to hike my way through the veritable Bible of San Diego hiking, and in order to complete the El Cap portion of the Badass Lifestyle List (B.L.L.), I’m going to have to do A LOT of hiking anyways, so why not just finish off that other goal while I’m at it?

            So, I’ve officially added another goal to the list of things to accomplish in 2012. It is a good thing I really like to cross things off of lists. Eventually I’ll figure out how to put the goals in the sidebar so that I can cross them off on the blog, and not just mentally. I wouldn’t get nearly as much satisfaction out of this project if I didn’t get to actually cross each item off the list.

            With the list growing, it was definitely time to get started on crossing things off the list. Sunday was almost sunny, ok, it was cloudy and dismal, but occasionally the sun was coming out to play, and I figured that was as good as we would get in this unusually wet winter. Scott had a headache and I was charged with getting Logan out of the house for a couple of hours, the lists were pressing on my mind, and it was almost sunny: it was time to hike!

            We had to start close (it was already one) and we had to start short (how far can I actually carry Logan if he doesn’t like hiking?). Mission Trails was the obvious choice to take care of the close requirement, and the shortest hike I found at Mission Trails was Kwaay Paay Summit. Upon arriving at Mission Trails, I immediately messed up the short part by choosing the WRONG trail head for Kwaay Paay. It did, actually, bring us up the summit, but added about half a mile on to the total length of the hike. We started in the Bushy Trail parking lot, and the book suggested starting right inside the gate to the road between Mission Damn and the Visitor’s Center. After the rains we’ve been having, it shouldn’t be surprising that the trail was muddy, but somehow it took me off guard when Logan decided to roll, yes, roll in the first large mud puddle.

            Hiking with a three-year old is an exercise in bribery perfection. “Can you make it to that rock? I bet we will find something really cool there!” “Oh, there was nothing cool at the rock? Maybe the next tree will have a spider on it!” “No spider? Ok, fine, cookies if we walk for 100 steps!” Eventually, Logan found his own motivation. He just wanted to find “cool” things to take pictures of with his new camera. In Logan’s world, “cool” things are apparently… his shoes, dirt, fence posts, the sky, my arm, my nose, my fingernails, his fingernails… you get the idea.

            250 pictures later, we turned a corner and KABLAM… “We have to climb that? Carry ME!” And that was just my reaction! About three-quarters of the way through this 1.5 (or 1.75 if you can’t read a map, like me) mile trail, we stumbled right into a steep, slick grade. Logan quickly learned the word steep, and told me that steep must mean “scary” and that he had no intention of climbing up that hill. We took breaks every 20 or so step (have you ever measured the length of a three year old’s step? It can’t be more than six inches!) but eventually we made it to the top. Once there, we were rewarded with views of Santee, La Mesa, Tierrasanta, the Mission Trails Visitor Center, and Fortuna Peak. The views were pretty cool to me, but Logan liked the playground of conveniently placed rocks. We took more pictures at the top, watched a few rock climbers struggling on the western face of the summit, and decided it was time to start back down the trail.

            Logan, however, was done with the hike shortly after beginning the descent. He slipped on the loose granite on the steepest part of the hike, survived a brutal face plant only by dangling in the air by the arm that was firmly attached to my hand, and sat for a good cry.

He got to ride the rest of the way down on my shoulders. Once we bypassed the steep section, sidestepped the flooded parts, and photographed a few caterpillars, it was definitely time for some music. Every once and a while, Logan and I will be doing something that shouldn’t seem noteworthy, but suddenly seems idyllic. This was totally one of those moments. Walking down a trail on a cool January day, surrounded by the sights that characterize my own childhood, Logan sat on my shoulders sharing my ear buds, and we rocked out to A Rocket to the Moon. Yeah, there was singing, there was shoulder dancing, and, there were other hikers looking at us like we were crazy. If only those people could hear me when I am running down the Fortuna trails at breakneck speed (if you are a snail!). I wonder what kind of looks they would give me then.

            In the end, this hike is definitely do-able with a toddler. And, well worth doing. If only for the fact that my sleep-resistant little boy fell asleep before I actually turned the car on. Yep, in the one minute it took me between getting him in his car seat and getting myself settled in the front of the car, he was passed out.