End of year elevation gain hikes December 2020

It’s getting toward the end of the year and I needed about 6,000 ft to make my goal of 75,000 ft elevation gain and Uwe needed about 8,000 ft to make his goal of 100,000 ft gain.

So, over the last few weeks we set off to make our goals. We hiked Mount Woodson from the Blue Sky Preserve (~2,600 ft gain), then El Capitan and El Cajon (~4,000 ft gain) a few days later. Uwe wanted to view the Chuparosa winery from both mountain tops and we were able to see it with his super binoculars.
On the way up El Cajon, there was a sign new to us pointing the way to some mines. It appears they mined iron ore and a clay, Kaolinite. Sounds like a syrup, but it is used to add gloss in the production of coated paper, and as an infusion into gauze to promote clotting. It was known as Quikclot Combat Gauze in Vietnam. Interesting things we discover on our hikes.

While I had achieved my goal with those two hikes Uwe still needed ~2,000 ft. To get it done he hiked Mt Woodson again a couple of days later and added a few hundred feet by including a hike up to Lake Ramona (~3,300 ft total gain). Surprising to both of us was the fact that he able to hike right across the dam at Ramona Lake.

There is something weird about these goals we have.


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