Hiked Dirty Harry's Balcony and Peak on Saturday. The trail up to the balcony is very nice and moderate, and it was pretty busy with a lot of large groups. The trail is nicely forested and mostly in the shade. Past the balcony, though, it changes completely. The forest soon gives way to an open, narrow, rocky trail that immediately starts going up. The slope somehow keeps getting steeper through to the very end, and the last couple switchbacks (< 0.5 mile) are a real challenge to push through. Luckily, there's a lot of shade, with only a few short sunny stretches. Once at the top, though, we were able to take a long break, eat lunch, and enjoy the views - we had the peak all to ourselves as a reward for the difficult climb. There are some biting flies up there, but they're not that bad in the shaded areas. Along the way to the peak there are wildflowers starting to bloom, so we had something nice to look at during our numerous breaks.
On the way down from the peak, we had to go pretty slowly to avoid slipping on all the loose rocks. Once the trail mellows out around the balcony area though, we were able to start running down, and it was smooth from there.
We started hiking at 10:30 am, and got to the peak at about 1:30 pm. We stayed up there for around two hours, and started the descent at 3:30 pm. It took us another hour to get down, and we were back at the trailhead at 4:30 pm, 6 hours after we started.
Excluding long breaks, our active hiking time was 4 hours 24 minutes. The distance logged on my GPS watch was 8.6 miles, with 3200 feet of elevation gain.
I'd recommend Dirty Harry's Balcony to everyone interested in hiking, as it's a moderate trail with nice views. Dirty Harry's Peak was a difficult climb, but it was extremely rewarding, so if you're able to take on the challenge I think it's well worth it!
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