Chip Shots at Mount Woodson
I was not the only one taking Chip shots on hikers who huffed and puffed all the way to the Mount Woodson summit for a stint or a stunt at the Potato Chip Rock. Most weekend, visitors flock to the rock, wait in line after making arrangements with their cellphone shooters, climb the boulder and jump over a crevice into the protruding chip of an adjoining boulder.
I had my first customary photo at the tip of the Chip almost four years ago. It was an awkward feeling standing at the tip while a college kid took my picture using my prehistoric Minolta camera.
"Isn't this a film camera?"
"Yes and it's older than your mom!"
Selfies and hash tags were not yet trending then.
It was Tina Chitura who introduced Mount Woodson to me. I did go back to the summit to look for the Potato Chip Rock four days after Tina, Tracy, Melanie, Annie and I hiked Mount Woodson for the first time.
https://m.facebook.com/notes/inglorious-glorieux/awe-and-alarm-on-the-summit/10150850531943440/?ref=bookmarks
The forecasted storm did not come so off I drove to Ramona for the easy way to get to the Chip. With the previous rains, I expected the Lake Poway route to be muddy and neither did I expect as many people as I have seen in a fair weather weekend to be lining up for the Chip.
It's amazing to find who would be hiking to the Mount Woodson summit just to have a photo at the Chip: kids, dogs, young adults, parents and seniors, too. Karlee and Noah had a photo at the Chip and so did Kay and Darby. I once took a photo of Ernest Sato at the Chip like he was walking towards a cliff. I asked him to make the photo a profile on his Facebook. I never saw the harakiri cheap shot.
I had to show Tina who lives is Ramona where the Chip is. When she attempted to climb into the tip on our visit, I had to stop her.
"It's not worth it!"
The truth is I am probably more nervous watching a person walking towards the tip of the Chip than walking towards the cliff myself. What if the person walking towards the cliff suddenly decides to jump?









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