Took advantage of a rare cloudy July day amidst the recent heatwave and pulled up to Eaton Trailhead around 4pm. The parking lot boasted a great view out unto the San Gabriel Mountains, including Baldy.

This was my first hike with my carbon trekking poles as well as the first big hike with my pal Beans the weener dog. As we passed through Mueller tunnel, I realized I forgot my headlamp (better to have and not need, etc.) My new picaridin bug repellent got put to the test early.

The tunnel spooked Beans a little bit, but we started to settle into a decent pace. He was occasionally distracted by voices above us, which struck me as odd. He was in fact so distracted he didn't notice the juvenile rattlesnake cross the trail 2-3ft in front of us. As we yielded to let them cross, I wondered why we hadn't gained any elevation yet. I took my phone out to take a few photos and check our progress and the clues came together -- we'd stayed on the fire road instead of joining the Upper Sam Merrill trail at the previous junction.

Thankful to the rattlesnake for pointing out my error before we'd gotten too terribly far, we backtracked and joined the trail as it started to drizzle. Once on the trail it was pretty smooth sailing -- I let Beans take his time on some scramble sections, since it was his first time, and he made light work of them.

The rain picked up but the ascent was otherwise smooth sailing other than a tiny bit of bushwhacking just before the summit, where we were granted fantastic panoramic views. We made it back down to the TH by 6pm.