Summiting South and North Fortuna Mountains

From the wooden stairway, I counted 307  of them walk  past the South Fortuna Mountain summit  marker. I didn't need to stop to catch my breath. The switchback that could be the Fortuna Saddle was giving  me a breather. 

I think of Haruki Murakami and made believe I was conditioning for the Cinco de Mayo trail run at Lake Poway. I took a photo of a lady running uphill with her dog before they disappeared. I run at my own pace, a snail's pace! I wish I was not so old. 

I thought I was not so crazy bringing my hybrid bike. My Giant would have been  kiddie bike compared to a real mountain bike that a person crazier than I hiked with uphill.

Last summer I summited South Fortuna with the sack Buddha I have been calling names. 

There's still no other soul in sight. 

The overlook at the North Fortuna Mountain summit  provides a 180 degree view of highway 52. The metal boxes left as relics at the summit seem to connect the northern peak to the defunct Camp Elliot. 

I head back the same route and stop by the South Fortuna Mountain Summit. 

 I wonder why the peaks were named after the Greek Goddess of Fortune, unlike  Kwaay Paay which meant leader to Kumeyaay Band of Native Americans. 

Mission Trails Regional Park used to be a village where the Kumeyaay tribe lived until the Spanish Friars, the Padres, came to San Diego.

The Kumeyaay Lake that flows into the Old Mission somehow seem to acknowledge the displaced Kumeyaays that used to inhabit the area.