There are two trails to choose from. There is the TRW trail and the Rising Sun trail. From what I read online the TRW trail is just a paved road. The Rising Sun trail was much more difficult. Unfortunately for me, the website didn't give a rating to the difficulty of the trail. In the reviews on Yelp, the people all had different opinions on how difficult the Rising Sun trail was. One person gave it a 4 of 10. Another 7 of 10. Some people sweat a little bit and others were winded instantly. There were many opinions on how this second trail was, but there was not a standard fitness level for everyone. I decided since I had the day to myself I'd kick it up a notch and travel the Rising Sun. Both trails lead to the same area so I wasn't going to miss out on anything by taking one over the other. The most common suggestion was to take the easy route to the waterfall and then the hard one back. The reason for this is because you'd be going westward towards the end of the day and the setting sun over the Pacific is a site to see between the mountains. I figured that I'll get there in the morning so the easier one would be better for the trip back. I wouldn't really be missing anything.
I parked all the way at the bottom parking lot for fun's sake then headed up the .2 mile long road to the main parking lot. Filled my water bottle and read the warnings/educational material then took off. I should have taken into consideration the state of my legs before embarking on the treacherous journey up the canyon. The first hill had my already tired legs burning. I walked maybe 300 yards uphill before I had to stop. I was surprised that I had to break so soon. Even with the look down method I couldn't pace myself higher up this first part of the hill. It took almost a half hour and several breaks before I got to the final incline. At this point I am sweating buckets and panting like a hot dog. I wore my Flash black tee and khakis since I read that some of the trail was overgrown. The last thing I needed on my first hike solo was to go home with ticks and lyme disease. Not really knowing what to expect I climbed the last little incline and I saw... More inclines. The curves were very deceiving on this path so what I thought was the finish was really just the end of the first leg. To my benefit, the inclines were all small in grade and length. Another problem was rising to my attention. The Sun. And I'm not talking about the Rising Sun trail. SoCal weather is constantly throwing curve balls. The day started out like it was going to be a cool, overcast day. As the Sun rose higher in the sky, the clouds burned away leaving the gaping blue atmosphere naked except for the burning orb at center stage. The heat brought out the creepy crawlies. On two occasions I saw little brown lizards scurry across the paths trying to get somewhere with a little more shade. Luckily I had the mind to prepare for this situation by layering up. I decided to strip a little bit to try and escape the smothering heat my clothes were making. I let a group of Asian people pass me and after they turned the corner, I took a turn...