Mother Nature seems to like to toy with me. Last weekend I was going to hike Lake 22, but Saturday was soaking wet so I waited until Sunday. But while driving there the skies turned black and I found myself in a torrential downpour, so I turned around and went home. Soon after I got back the rain stopped, and in the afternoon the sun came out. %#@#%*!!! Then Monday it was cold in the morning, but beautiful and sunny. Today was the same, and still feeling cheated by a lousy weekend I decided to take some PTO in the afternoon and get in a hike while the weather held.
I decided to do Heybrook Ridge, which is always a great choice when you're in the area and don't have a whole lot of time. I got there right at 2pm and there were just three other cars in the parking lot, and I only encountered maybe 3 or 4 groups the entire time. The trail was damp but not muddy, and curiously there were fallen maple leaves everywhere even though I couldn't see any maple trees nearby. The creeks were all dry as a bone. It took me only 40 minutes to reach the first viewpoint overlooking Mt Index and Persis, and at that point decided to head over the ridge to the lookout as well.
Reaching the lookout from the ridge involves hiking past six of the electrical towers, which is a fairly gentle climb. The vegetation has grown to about waist-high, and I got my pants and boots wet as it's trying to swallow up the trail. There were a few small wildflowers still hanging on, but the rest was all brown and yucky with nothing pretty in the way of fall foliage. After passing the sixth tower the trail re-enters the forest and soon connects with the upper portion of the Heybrook Lookout trail accessed from Highway 2. From there it's a short hike to the lookout, which I arrived at just 1 1/2 hours from the Heybrook Ridge parking lot.
I was the only one at the lookout but I didn't linger there for long, just enough time to swig some water, take some pics and wave to some folks arriving down below. I then descended and quickly made my way back down, again taking just an hour and a half. By the time I returned to the parking lot at 4:30pm there was just one other vehicle parked there besides mine.
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