My work has this thing where you can take one day off a year to do volunteer work and still get paid and also one day off to do something active and also get paid.  The end of the year is coming up quickly and I needed to think of what to do with my days.  Last year I used it for snowboarding which was nice but we didn’t go this year so I still had it.

In the back of my mind I had always wanted to go see the potato chip rock – well, not really see it but to take that picture that everyone has on it!  I mean, it does look pretty cool.  However, there often isn’t a lot of time to do such a thing.  Since I knew Marisa sometimes has Fridays free, I asked her which one she was free on and asked if she wanted to go check it out with me.  So that’s what we did yesterday.

I really didn’t do much research on it as I usually like to do before embarking on things.  I had no idea how long it was going to take nor did I know where it was.  I heard people say it took several hours so I had that in the back of my mind.  I had also left the house early in the morning to go to the doctor and saw how foggy and misty it was outside so I thought it might be a bit cool so that was good.  But then I thought about it some more and I thought that since it was inland it was probably going to be hot.  Anyway, we both had a bagel to go and both had one nalgene bottle each.  I didn’t want to carry much so I cut down on things and wore shorts with pockets.  We looked around for sunscreen and I couldn’t find mine.  Marisa had some face one which was 15 spf that I used on my face and rubbed the leftovers on my shoulders and off we went.

I think it was about 1.8 miles to get from the parking lot to the start of the Mt. Woodson trail.  It was already getting warm and I was glad I ditched the t-shirt for a tank top at the house.  The view of the lake was so nice and peaceful.  It was incredibly still.

Marisa at the Start of the Mt. Woodson Trail

We had barely started on the Mt. Woodson trail and I was dying already.  Due to my lack of exercise in the past year and my flurry of health problems, I was pretty much out of breath every two minutes.  I felt kind of bad but we seriously had to stop like every 5 minutes.  I needed to stop and catch my breath and let my heart slow down a bit.  Marisa said we could go back at any time if I needed to or wanted to but I really didn’t want to do this halfway and not make it up.  So we just took many breaks along the way.  Bringing just one bottle of water was not really a good idea as I found myself continuously drinking it and realizing that I needed to ration it as I would run out before we even got to the top.  It was HOT out there and there was a lot of climbing, it was tiring for me.

At one point we got to this really shady part where there was a big tree and a bunch of rocks where we rested for awhile.  A lot of other people were resting there as well!  I didn’t realize that from that spot, it was still a ways up to the Potato Chip Rock.  Just before that area, some people on the way down told us about 20 minutes – lies – it was about 40 minutes!  Maybe if I was in better shape…  Another thing to note is that people are quite friendly on the trails – nearly everyone said hello to each other upon passing.

Resting in the shade on the way up!

2.5 hours later – we made it!  I was SO TIRED.  Everyone up there was tired and just sitting in the shade resting.  By now my water bottle was near empty – I probably had 3 tiny sips left.  Now it was time to take the “famous” picture!  Little did I know, you kind of have to jump onto to potato chip rock from another giant rock.  It’s not that far but it seems a bit scary.  You could either leap across or jump down onto a slanted downward rock and get there.  I was a bit afraid.  Marisa went down first and she helped me down and I screamed.  We asked some people to take our pictures and that was that.  Now to get down, you have to try to go back up that big rock which is hard to do because of the angles.  You would need someone to help you back up or you can slide down the other rock but that is kind of scary too.  I did that and scraped the back of my leg.  We rested a bit and watched other people jump to the potato chip and also helped take pictures.  Then we decided we wanted to go again and take more pictures with the real camera.  This time I leaped across.  I was really scared that I wouldn’t make it.  Reminded me of those dumb leap frog things at beach palooza or those jumping things at alpha warrior.  But I made it.  We took more pictures and then this time this random girl tried to help me up towards the rock side.  She kept trying to pull me when I wasn’t ready.  I also don’t think she realized that I am heavier than Marisa haha.  I barely made it back up and scraped my leg so more.

After a strenuous hike – we made it.

Yay!

After we had reached the top I was really wishing for a way to be flown back down.  It was SO HOT – we were low on water and we were far from the car.  Going down was also going to be painful for my knee and my ankle.  My ankle usually works pretty well these days except when it is downhill.  Downhill walking seems to get my ankle to pull out of the socket just a little bit to where every single step is painful.  I had to stop a few times to click it back into place.  Going down was pretty freaking miserable I must say.  Marisa was kind enough to let me drink the rest of her water and that was it.  It was now the hottest time of day.  I was dying.  I wanted to stop because my legs started to hurt and then my feet started to hurt and I was TIRED.  But the more we stopped the longer it would take to get back.  Everyone else got down so fast but I had to keep stopping.  I kept feeling bad still.  I could feel myself getting sunburned like crazy.  We joked about having raccoon eyes.  Our feet and legs were DIRTY.  We barely talked to each other anymore lol I think we were both so tired and hot!  We talked about how we would never do this again lol.  Upon reach the lake we met this guy who we talked to briefly – he offered us some water.  I REALLY wanted some but decided against it because you never know with random people.  Better play it safe.  We were also really hoping that the COLD DRINK poster we saw would be true – as in we hoped the snack store would be open so we would get some water.  Coming back down took about 2 hours.  We went to the store and I bought a gatorade and a large water.  I drank half the gatorade before making it to the register.  We got to the car and it was so nice to SIT.

We were also starving the whole time because all we ate was A bagel 5 hours ago.  We stopped to eat and headed home.  There I discovered that my almost new white Nike socks had turned into a disgusting brown.  I tried to wash them in the shower but it didn’t really work.  Sadly, I might have to discard them or just wear brown socks lol.  I took a shower and it felt so good.  Then I learned that I was burned pretty bad.

Sunburned chest, neck, shoulders, and back.

Yeah you probably can’t tell that much there.  How about this?

Ouch

And then today…

Give me some aloe

I do not think I will ever be hiking Mt. Woodson again.  I got my picture and I’ll check that off my non-existent bucket list.  We also had some good conversation and fun times.   If you do go, wear sunscreen, wear a hat (which I stupidly forgot), and bring more than one bottle of water.  Take many pictures and expect to be sore the next day.