Kwaay Paay Peak
Miles: 2.81
Elevation Gain: 822ft
Gaia Track
100 Peaks Challenge #22
Afoot & Afield 5th ed. Trip #86

For our weekday hikes that we are squeezing in before work, I am focusing on the low-hanging fruit, knocking the closest, shortest hikes off the list first. (We are balancing these out by doing the hardest peaks on the list on the weekends this month.) Today’s hike, Kwaay Paay Peak in Mission Trails Regional Park, qualifies as some pretty darn low-hanging fruit.

I’ve done this short but steep climb a couple of times in the past – as pretty much all San Diego hikers have. It’s on the former Mission Trails Five Peaks Challenge, which I completed in 2017. Once, hiking it in 2018, near the bottom, I was passed by a pair of extremely fit young men who ran up by me, wearing weight vests. When I was about halfway up, they passed me heading down. When I was nearly at the top, they passed me again – heading up. I think they lapped me two times over before I was done. Once was enough for me, no extra weight needed!

Today’s hike was uneventful. We got started shortly before sunrise and made good time to the top, getting up there in about 40 minutes. We did not linger – took a couple of photos, admired the urban view – then headed back down. We saw several other people despite the early time on a weekday – interestingly, all were women. And that was it for peak #22.