Brandy's Adventures

We hiked Iron Mountain Peak Trail last in July with my niece, Anna. Even though it was early morning with a temperature in the 70s, Brandy overheated and we had to cool her off with our drinking water. We met a hiker on the way down that gave us directions to the spring, but we just couldn’t find it.

Today was in the 60s and overcast. Last evening, there was a sprinkle – the first of the season- so no longer did I have to eat Brandy’s dust! We started at the Iron Mountain Peak trailhead, undecided at that point whether to hike Ellie Lane Trail or all of Iron Mountain Peak Trail. We headed up Iron Mountain Trail to the “T”, at the last moment deciding to continue to the Iron Mountain peak.

We soon overtook a hiker with an older black Lab puppy off-leash. Brandy snarled a little when they met, as she is apt to do. Quickly, however, Brandy began running — her tail down and ears back — as fast as she could up and down the trail around the puppy. She exhibits this running behavior frequently at dog park, presumable to get other dogs to chase her. After a few laps, she approached the puppy (now we knew its name was “Cody”) and started playing.

We went on ahead, but soon Brandy stopped and wouldn’t obey, “Let’s go!” Cody caught up, they played a little and Cody continued on ahead. We swapped who was leading a few times and eventually we went on ahead to the peak.

When we were at the peak last July, the telescope was missing. Now there was both a telescope and new mailbox with a log. The first entry in the log was October 9 and it was already over half filled. We made a log entry, took a few pictures and soon Cody and Richard arrived at the peak.

Richard and I talked while Brandy and Cody played essentially at our feet. I “always” have Brandy on leash when we are hiking, but they were having such a good time playing that I thought it safe to remove the leash and give Brandy more freedom. Brandy and Cody played hard, wrestling in the dirt and chasing each other, all the time staying somewhat close to Richard and me.

After a while, play was over when Richard and Cody descended and Brandy and I ate a quick lunch at the picnic table. We then took our last pictures and headed down.

Richard had told me how to find the spring, and with his accurate instructions, I found the spring on the way back. I marked it on my GPS so I could put it on our trail map for a future hike. The spring is roughly 0.15 miles up the mountain from the helipad spur trail. Brandy took a cooling dip and then we continued down the mountain.

There are  two porta-potties side-by-side at the Wild Horse Trail junction. I stepped inside, letting the leash go through the doorway, and closed the door when I heard Brandy saying, “Grrrrrr!” I opened the door and saw her looking at the ground while growling. She does that, sometimes at bugs and sometimes at leaves. I decided “bug” and shut the door, holding the leash. I could hear Brandy continuing to growl. When I opened the door, Brandy was still growling and then I heard, “zzzzzzz!” right next to me. Under the threshhold of the next porta-potty was a coiled rattlesnake! We were so fortunate that I picked the right porta-potty and that Brandy has good snake instincts.

I looked up and down the trail to see if there were any hikers; there were none. I then found a branch to poke at the snake to get it to move. The snake stayed motionless as I poked at it a bit, so I just left it alone, hoping it would go on its way before any other hikers come along.

The last time we hiked Warren Canyon Trail we ran out of water and decided to call for a ride rather than do the return hike. This time we had plenty of water and food. The weather, after the heat of the summer, was welcome cool and overcast.

We took Lake Poway Trail from the Lake Poway staging area to Mt. Woodson Trail. Warren Canyon Trail starts at the junction where Mt. Woodson Trail climbs to the Mt. Woodson ridge and ends at Highway 67. It’s virtually all uphill from Lake Poway to the beginning of Warren Canyon Trail. Warren Canyon Trail is mostly either up or down and very little flat.

When we got to the first picnic table, we saw that the tree that shaded the picnic table and had burned in the Witch Creek fire had finally fallen over.  We almost missed the relatively hidden table because we relied on the tree as a landmark.

We stopped for a food and rest at the second picnic table. We had been there for a few minutes when I caught a glimpse of a speck of blue in the sea of leaves by the table. I investigated and found the corner of a geocache that was virtually buried in the leaves. We had found the cache on a previous hike, knew where it belonged and returned it to its hiding place.

I had read about a spur trail off Warren Canyon Trail to the Poway/Ramona border and was looking for that trail. It was said to be partially overgrown and had some poison oak. We finally came to a narrow trail that led off to the east and decided to take that one. It was easy for a while and then more difficult as the chaparral encroached upon the trail. I was following Brandy and at times when there was no discernible trail, I just trusted her. Every time the trail would eventually reappear. She led me through poison oak (that was a trail marker!), up a dry creek and under two boulders that I could hardly squeeze through. Then, as before, the trail suddenly reappeared. We continued and followed the trail to the Poway/Ramona border at Highway 67.

The Warren Canyon trailhead was west on Highway 67 about 0.4 mile. Because of the sharp dropoff from the road shoulder, we walked in the bike lane as close to the guard rail as we could. I had Brandy on a very short leash. At one point, when a car passed that was slightly into the bike lane, I decided that hiking on the highway was a poor choice. We picked up the pace and soon came to the Warren Canyon trailhead. The trail comes steeply up from the valley and ends at the guard rail.

After a short rest and a few pictures, we descended Warren Canyon Trail into the valley. A short distance after we had passed the spur junction on our return, we came upon a trail came in from the right. I decided to explore that trail for a short distance and then come back to the main trail. Suddenly, that trail looked familiar and I came upon a Warren Canyon Trail trail marker. I didn’t remember that on the way out I made a sharp left at a “T”. I did mark the junction on my GPS and will explore it on a future hike. The lesson learned it to be far more observant!

The hike was a strenuous (for me) 8.4 miles round-trip.