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Double Peak

Trailhead Location: San Marcos, near California State University

Trail Use: Hiking, running, dog walking, mountain biking, horseback riding
Distance & Configuration: 4.6-mile out-and-back

Elevation Range: 670 feet at the start to 1,644 feet at the peak

Facilities: Water and restrooms at the start and on the summit of Double Peak
Highlights: Panoramic views of the entire inland North County area, along with an ocean vista from the top

Description: South of the spreading suburbs that cluster along CA 78, a scruffy ridgeline scrapes the southern sky. Topographic maps note the obscure names of its various high points: Cerro de las Posas, Double Peak, Franks Peak, and Mount Whitney (not that Whitney but still the highest of the group). Double Peak, our destination on this hike, is the most hiker-friendly one. Its summit lies within a city of San Marcos regional and interpretive park that takes full advantage of the peak’s panoramic view. Since the park’s completion in 2009, it has been possible to drive all the way to the summit from the San Elijo Hills housing development on the south side. Our chosen route, how-ever, goes up Double Peak’s mostly undeveloped north slope and capitalizes on a roughly 1,000-foot elevation change. That is appealing, of course, only if you’re amenable to a bit of vigorous exercise.

The Route: You begin at Lakeview Park, next to a small reservoir called Discovery Lake. A flat, 0.8-mile trail, popular with everyone from runners to parents pushing strollers, loops around the lake. Our way to Double Peak, though, takes you across the lake’s dam to a paved, traffic-free maintenance road heading south, sharply up a hillside through chaparral vegetation. Numbered white trail signs are located at key points all the way up including at trail junctions and street crossings. Simply head in the direction of the red arrows labeled "Double Peak Trail". Soon, you go into and then out of a hillside residential development. Just continue uphill toward a large, hillside water tank. Just shy of the tank, turn left on a fenced dirt path and climb very steeply through chaparral nicely recovering from the last big fire in 1996. North-slope vegetation such as this requires about 40 years of growth to reach a climax stage, and this stand is on its way.

At the next trail intersection 1.1 miles from the start and identified with one of the Double Peak Trail signs and a low-to-the-ground circular brass plaque labeled SAN ELI-JO HILLS 10K LOOP START, turn sharply right and continue climbing more moderately until you reach a multiuse recreation path running along the ridgeline. Make a left there (going southeast), and you soon come to Double Peak Drive, which at this point is curling up from the San Elijo Hills housing development. Simply get on the sidewalk and continue walking steeply uphill until you reach Double Peak Park’s parking lot.

Scattered eucalyptus trees and olive trees, relics from an old homesite, dot the summit itself, and now those trees have been joined by picnic tables thoughtfully placed to frame the spectacular view. At the very top, a free-to-use swiveling telescope scope that rotates 360 degrees is affixed to the center of a concrete pad and can be used for sighting key landmarks. The extent of the view depends on the season, with late fall and winter months generally providing the greatest atmospheric transparency. Even on an average day, you can at least glimpse Southern California’s highest mountain ranges (the San Gabriels, San Bernardinos, and San Jacintos) in the north and the shining Pacific Ocean to the west and southwest. On days of exceptional atmospheric clarity, add to that list Santa Catalina Island offshore from Orange and Los Angeles counties and the Coronado Islands off the northern Baja coast. At this point you can retrace your steps back to the trailhead.