El Cajon Mountain: The Toughest Hike in San Diego County

Early yesterday morning, I began my on-site training to summit El Cajon Mountain on December 30. I’ve got history with this hill and it’s a checkered one.

I’ve summited it twice but, the first time in August 2011, I got pummeled by heat exhaustion on my way back to the parking lot. At mile 2.5, I collapsed under a rare grove of black oak trees and, after 30 minutes huddled in a crouch, I had to ask for water from more experienced hikers speeding past me. Despite drinking two extra liters of water, exhaustion, no shade, and 90-degree heat forced me to stop about every 100 yards to rest. It took about three hours to finish the last 2.5 miles. I was in a dangerous situation and I was lucky to survive. Weeks later, I summited without incident, but it still threatened to destroy me.

Friends who don’t know ECM constantly ask me to describe why ECM is so tough. Most San Diegans consider it the toughest hike in the county. First, most other hikes reward you with a downhill trek once you summit. ECM tortures you with numerous steep hills to climb even on the way down. If you’re exhausted, the hills can break you down like they did me in August 2011. Second, there is the elevation incline of over 2,000 feet.

Since 2011, I haven’t summited ECM. In fact, I’ve avoided it often to hike easier hills in the county. Every once in a while, I would hike ECM but seldom got past the half-way point of the 12-mile hike. Often, it was more mental than physical beating ECM gave me.

Now that I’ve lost 65 pounds, I have to get my revenge. I’ve been training on my own hilly three acres where I spend most of the year clearing brush to lessen the risk of wild fires. I average over 15,000 steps a day as well as the equivalent of 30 floors in hill training. Summiting Cowles Mountain intensifies my hill training, about 80 floors to get to the top. Yesterday, I got up the courage to train on-site at ECM.

I got up early and prepped myself food-wise and drink-wise for the 8am start time. There were only three other cars in the parking lot as Sandi dropped me off. Before she left, I opened the trunk of our Hyundai Santa Fe to get my hiking poles, but they weren’t there. Not a good way to start.

I climbed the .45 miles to the starting point where I took advantage of the non-flushable toilet. Mile 1 is totally uphill, but I had no problem with it. My goal was to climb to the halfway point (around 6 miles) to see how I would do. It was only 55 degrees and a 65-pound weight loss makes a huge difference.

To my surprise, I hiked half the mountain without even stopping. None of the steep hills stopped me. I arrived to the half-way point, took a cell phone pic of myself and started heading back. On the way down, my brain kept repeating that I could have summited ECM, but I reminded myself that I hadn’t brought enough water. Why repeat my stupid and dangerous attempt in August 2011?

I immediately checked my cell hiking app once I got back to the parking lot. I had actually climbed 8 miles, over 19,000 steps, and 132 floors, all without stopping for breaks. I finished 17 minutes before my prediction of 3 hours.