With a weekend off from soccer; Joey and I ventured down to San Diego for the weekend and had one hell of a day hiking Ho Chi Minh Trail! We’d looked up a couple of hikes and were immediately intrigued after seeing some of the photos of this trail. It is super unique and completely different than your usual coastal hike. It was almost as if we were in the dessert; the way some of the cliffs twisted.

The hike took us about 2 hours to complete and was much more intense than we had anticipated. Read below for the surprises we faced!

• The entire trial is pretty sketchy: See above ^^ More than a few of the paths were joined by small pieces of wood that may or may not be completely trustworthy. My advice, walk fast!
• Be ready to get dirty & literally hug the mountain: While you are hiking up-hill there are spots where you’re not only going uphill, but you quite literally are pulling yourself uphill horizontally (like Spideman, no joke).
• The trail gets thin: at some points again, you have to press your body against the rocks and step one foot in front of the other to move.
• Be weary of snakes! We saw on snake come out under a rock and slither right in front of Joey.
• Be steady with your steps: Some of the sand is pretty loose, so if you aren’t sure of your step you may slip. A group in front of us was trying to pull someone out of the crevice of the mountain after they had slipped. We were very careful.
• Wear sunblock! I got totally burnt and am in so much pain now!
• Use the rope! Towards the end of the trail there is a rope someone had tied to a tree to help people get down from the mountain onto the beach. It’s only about 10 feet from the mountain to the beach; but that rope definitely helps!

There are two routes you can choose to do (we did both). First uphill to the complete top of the mountain and then you can go back down towards the beach. Both are so much fun and rewarding once you reach your destination.

The view at the top is breathtaking and so worth it. Going down the mountain; you’ll follow a small creek that leads right to the beach and how rare is it to literally follow water down a mountain into the ocean?

More to come on my reviews and time spent in San Diego!

Happy Monday friends!

xoxo,

Amanda