What goes up, must come down. But what a view in between!

A week after we summitted Suicide, our staff reconvened to conquer Mt. Tahquitz.

We took South Ridge Trail up, which was great because we could see our goal most of the way. Here, it's the highest point in the picture.

We stopped occasionally to see our little world at our feet. Diamond Valley Lake is off to the left, the orange groves spread before it and to the right, and just barely discernible in the valley is Florida Ave. stretching through the center of Hemet.

At the top, we met the volunteer firespotter. He spends a week in this little glass house watching for signs of smoke. I talked to him for a bit, and it turns out that his daughter went to Point Loma in the '90s--he asked me if they had finished Nicholson Commons yet, and when I told him they had just celebrated the building's tenth anniversary, he said, "Guy! Has it been that long?"

The black and yellow butterflies floating all over the place contrasted nicely with the pure blue air.



We ate lunch on the firespotter's porch before heading down. We took Devil's Slide for our descent, which was a lot of fun. Instead of retracing our steps, we had an entirely new trail to explore.



Devil's Slide afforded us an excellent view of our first venture of the season.