Yesterday I took the miata out on a drive for a short bit of adventure. I didn’t wake up until after 10am due to being out until after 2am the night before. So it was a late start to the day with me not getting on the road until about 1pm. Since the Angeles Crest Highway (ACH) had been mostly closed since February and had just recently opened that week, I figured it was time to drive there. My goal was to make it out to Mt Waterman and hike up for the disc golf course. I had seen this course the last time I hiked there a few years ago so I figured it was worth checking out. I think they run a ski lift up there on weekends in the summer but it was not running and nobody was around this Sunday.
After a nice 2 mile hike and 1500 foot elevation gain, I had reached the disc golf course at around 8000 feet of elevation. It was just before 1600 so I only had a couple hours of daylight to explore the area and play the course all by myself. I did not see a soul so it was a perfect place to be. Course was a bit difficult to follow since it wasn’t marked but thankfully the map I saved ahead of time got me through it. Plus it was a beautiful area and the mountainous terrain allowed for a challenging and interesting course.
I ended up only playing half the course and since I had entirely given up on finding one of the tees, I played only 8 holes. I’ll have to go back with more daylight and play all 18. I made it back down to the car at about 1730 and then took a whole bunch of photos of the miata since the mountains are always a good spot for that.
After some photos, I got on the road heading back towards home. This direction the road was all downhill so I was at much less of a power disadvantage. Plus nobody was on the road anymore so it was nice to open it up and enjoy the road as the sun was setting in the distance. Eventually I entered a cloud layer that had moved in leading to limited sight distance and a bit of a misty atmosphere. Had to slow down a bit for that weather but I also stopped at the mt Wilson access road for some more photos with this new lighting.
Great short day in the mountains and definitely have to make it a point to go back soon before the snow starts flying. They don’t get a whole lot of snow there at least so winter is often a very nice time to explore the area. It was in the 50s and sunny this day so it was just about perfect mountain weather. Now I’m off to Chicago for work for a couple of days, gotta try that casserole pizza they are known for while in town I guess. Never been to the windy city so something new at least.