SIERRA MADRE MOUNTAINS

On Friday morning at 8 a.m. a group of four of us headed out for what we thought would be about a four hour hike in the Sierra Madre Mountains.

The city of Pasadena and many other L.A. suberbs along the 210 Freeway sit at the foothills of these massive mountains. After my first hiking experience through the mountains, I can not wait to go back for another round on another trail.

Our hike was listed as a five mile round-trip hike that will take moderate effort with some boulder jumping required during the hike. We were headed out to find an old mine that was used during the days of the California Gold Rush.

Let me tell you, this was not as simple a hike as the four of us thought it would be. Aside from the fact that it was at least 90-degrees the entire hike we came across a whole bunch of odd turns and tough boulders to get around but man it was a blast. At least one mile of the hike was boulder jumping.

We finally found the old mine around 11 a.m. and inside it was pitch black. I mean the kind of black were you can't see your hand in front of your face. Inside the mine there was a well that must have gone down at least 100 feet among some amazing waterfalls. Thank God for flashlights! Also, Thank God for no bats!!

The return hike was quite awesome. There was this really cool natural "slip and slide" ... We did get lost and decided to take a "short cut" up a hill with loose rocks and no firm footing at a 65 (or so) degree angle. As Clint said, "It's a lot more exciting and fun when death is involved" ... Well, it was fun and a certain amount of fear was involved that's for sure!

We finally ended the hike that ended up probably being around 6.5 miles round trip and six hours long! Can't wait to go back!