The Mount of Iron

We conquered! A large hill, which the locals call a mountain, was taken by force by Scott's CAP squadron yesterday. I went along, too.

We were all supposed to report at 0800 hours. Most of the cadets did. Some of them didn't. Between all of the incomplete CAPF-31s (fancy name for a permission slip) and people forgetting water, etc, we didn't actually start hiking until almost 0900 hours. That wouldn't have been as much of a problem, except for the fact that it got to be just about 100 degrees yesterday. Every minute that we "hurried up and waited" was another minute to be in ever increasing heat.

But start we did. And in one hour and thirty minutes we completed climbing the 2.8 mile trail. The view from the top was fantastic. A strange weather phenomena called Santa Ana winds was causing the extreme heat, but it also gave us a breeze that wasn't altogether unpleasant and it pushed all of the smog out over the ocean. We could see all the way to the coast (which, I'm guessing here, was about twenty miles) along with quite a bit of the ocean itself. We all perched up on the rocks for a while and I had a discussion with one of the cadets. He was saying that even though it was hot, it was nice to have the Santa Ana winds blowing for the sake of the breeze. I was convinced that if the Santa Ana winds had not been blowing at all, that it wouldn't be as hot. Period. The temperature is supposed to drop approximately 20 degrees in a few days when the flow shifts. He wasn't convinced. So he and I continued to argue about it. One of his friends was sitting next to him, silently laughing his head off.

The descent was very pleasant. It is always easier to go downhill than uphill. And I was able to listen to a fascinating discussion about giving blood and fake blood and lots topics pertaining to blood. My dad and a couple of the cadet sponsors were having this discussion. Very fascinating. But slightly gross.

And, after 3 hours on the "mountain" we got back down. I, personally, was very tired. I got in a fight with a rock and lost, acquired two new blisters, and became caked in dust due to the extreme wind. But it was worth it.