Black Mountain Hike

Black Mountain From Blackhawk Trail Head

Black Mountain, located in northern San Diego, is a mountain that I've seen thousands of times but had never hiked to the top of. It was on my list of local peak to "bag", so finally, on June 1st, National Trails Day, I decided it was time and gathered two friends to join me in the hike. We started from the Blackhawk trailhead, which is on the south side of the mountain.

The weather was a cool 72 degrees, but it sure felt a lot hotter. I didn't know what to expect as far as trail conditions, but I believed that the trail to the top was shorter than my usual hike up Iron Mt., which you can see in this photo of me. Mt. Woodson is directly behind my head and Iron Mt. is on the far right.

Me At, or near the top of Black Mt.

The trail was very rocky with lots of medium-sized rocks covering the whole trail in some spots. I had good boots on but I still had to watch my step on the steeping sections. As we hiked up it looked like we took the wrong trail, as the peak was on the other side of a valley and we didn't seem to be getting closer to the peak even after hiking for 30 minutes. Plus, there was no one else on the trail.

Finally the trail met up with a junction and there was a man with his three sons and he told us we were on the right trail to the summit. I'm not sure how long it took to hike up as I didn't look at my watch and I wasn't recording this hike on any GPS. We took many breaks on the way up so it took much longer than the hike down which we made in less than an hour.

Over-development below Black Mountain

 From the summit, on a clear day, you can see 360 degrees for long distance. It was foggy towards the west so you couldn't see the ocean. It was clearer looking north and east. Pictured above is the dense housing developments that were all built since the 1990s. That used to be 4-S Ranch, which was a real ranch with fields, farms and horses. Also it was a popular, and dangerous place to go off-roading.

Steve and Judy at Summit of Black Mt.

Even at the summit we only saw a few other people, including one mountain biker who flew down the hill with a Go Pro camera on his helmet. After the hike we were all tired and ready for a beer or two, or three. Now that I've done this hike, I don't need to do it again, but I will if the opportunity comes up. Maybe I'll try a different route up.