After finding some flowers in Escondido, I found some more closer to home! I needed to do some maintenance on one of the caches in the 101 Dalmatians series (Jewel: GC1H0N0). As an aside, this is a series of caches where each one is named after a Dalmatian from the eponymous movie. Each cache has a clue which will help to solve the final cache in the series (Rolly: GC1GZ6Y). (As an aside to the aside, Rolly has only been found three times in the past five years (and not since June of 2017). So if you are a fan of difficult geocaching challenges and/or lonely caches, this one is a good candidate.) I adopted Jewel a few years ago and this pup seems to wander off quite often. Such a bad dog! GZ is just off the major trail on the back side of Cowles Mountain, so there is a ton of traffic past the cache. As a result, I am out here every so often to replace it.
I parked on Barker Way (I’m not making that up!) and took the service road up to where Jewel was hidden. The geopile looked like the remains of a ransacked Egyptian tomb! Rocks turned over and scattered about, a few bits of plastic here and there, but the mummy – I mean, the puppy was long gone. I replaced the cache, but since I had already hoofed halfway up the mountain, I figured I may as well grab a few other caches that I hadn’t found yet. I came back down the service road to the Big Rock Trail, a (well signed) spur trail that is located near a bend with a fantastic view. Big Rock Trail drops fairly steeply to Pyles Peak trail. (Note: This trail is not on ‘official’ maps, so use at your discretion.) The service road had a number of hikers on it (it can pretty crowded) but Pyles Peak trail was very quiet, very narrow and just wonderful! It winds up and down, crosses a seasonal creek, and there are even a few spots that offer shade. The first cache along the way was an ammo can called ‘Is this Sumac? #13’ (GC2RJJQ). It took me a little while to spot the cache because… flowers! I’m not sure why this little spot was ablaze with yellow, purple, and white, but I spent a fair bit of time enjoying my personal mini-superbloom. The cache and the location were so nice, I dropped a travel bug here as well. Hopefully someone will venture out this way again soon, but at least it is safe in this little corner of Cowles.
After enjoying the flowers, I continued along the narrow trail to find one more cache (Carpe Diem “A Birthday Bushwhack” (GC2R8ZN)). GZ was at a sharp bend in the trail, and with varying elevations, it took several tries to finally spot the good-sized ammo can. Cache maintenance, two ammo cans, and some beautiful sights… I would call that a great San Diego morning!
Pyles Peak trail offered some nice views and had a much different feel than the ‘front’ side that everyone else climbs. Although I didn’t have time on this trip, one can continue on this trail up to a ‘peak’ labeled as a viewpoint on most maps. North from there takes you to Pyles Peak and south returns you to Cowles Peak and the service road back to Barker Way. This hike provides a nice, much less crowded loop and gives you the opportunity to bag 6+ geocaches, a Dalmatian or two, and a couple of peaks. It can be brutally hot along here in the summer months, so if you decide to make this trek, be sure to bring plenty of water.
