Hike and Backpacking Trip

HIKE
Two weekends ago I had plans that got canceled at the last minute. With my new allotment of a free Saturday I decided to go on a hike. I was looking for three things in this hike:

1) I hadn't done it before
2) It got me to some high point
3) I could get as deep in the back-country as possible

I decided to hike to McKinley Peak in the San Rafael Wilderness. The trailhead was about a 30 minute drive up a winding road just north of Lake Cachuma. The hike was a 20 mile round trip with beautiful sweeping views of the back-country. The day was almost perfectly clear. I could see Hurricane Deck with its neatly striated south face, Lake Cachuma, and even the Channel Islands. I got an early start hoping to encounter some wildlife, and I was lucky enough to see quite a bit. I saw a mountain lion, black bear, garter snake, quail, turkey buzzards, and a few hawks. There were even some large patches of snow along the trail left over from the cold storm that blew in the week before.

BACKPACKING
Last weekend I went backpacking with a few friends to Forbush Flat, just 2 miles on the north side of Camino Cielo along the Cold Spring Trail. It rained just after we set up camp for about an hour. The canyon in which our site was situated had a small meadow with apple and olive trees. There were many types of wildflowers along the trail. On Saturday morning we hiked to the "Grotto," a neat rock formation in a spring-fed creek. We saw some turtles hanging out in one of the pools. There were a few huge alligator lizaards along the trail and we even encountered a rattlesnake on our hike back to the car.