It was Cinco de Mayo, and we had that rare combination – or so it seems anymore – of a desire for exercise and a free day in which to do it. Of our various options, we settled on a repeat of our 2014 hike to Mt. Islip, elev. 8,261′, which we remembered to be about 7-ish roundtrip miles with manageable elevation gain for our lately-atrophied muscles. Plus, it would get us out on the PCT, the first thru-hiker waves of whom have been passing through Wrightwood over the recent weeks. We got to the trailhead at Islip Saddle a little after 10am, hitting the trail shortly thereafter – the initial grade seemed very easy, especially after no appreciable exertion for either of us since our Arizona trip in February. We continued to make decent time up the 800′ gain over the first mile, then transitioning to a mile-plus of flat ground on the eastward traverse to Little Jimmy Campground, the walk-in-only facility popular with both weekenders and PCTers this time of year. We were quite surprised to find a relatively empty camping area as we passed – perhaps it was a little early still on Saturday for newcomers, and of course the thru-hikers would have been several miles further west at this late hour. A short while later, we finished the mild climb up to Windy Gap where, not surprisingly, there was a fresh, cool breeze blowing northward – despite wispy clouds high overhead, the sun was at its zenith and it felt quite warm, even in the shade of the forest, but the breeze here made it feel 15 degrees cooler. After a brief pause for some photos, we started west from the gap up the Mt. Islip trail, through a moderately steep section at first that gradually eased into a mild gradient up the peak’s east ridge. Chris stopped a few times for photos (and, admittedly, to catch his breath) while Jane surged ahead, which is usually a recipe for disaster. He had spotted her once or twice in this section a couple of hundred yards above, so he knew she wasn’t far away. The trail traverses about 100′ below the summit across the south face of the mountain – here, there’s a junction with the Big Cienaga trail that leads up from Crystal Lake. Chris reached the junction and took the right-hand fork, following the uphill arrow and ignoring the downhill arrow for Big Cienaga to the left. As he climbed higher, he spotted Jane on the other trail about 300 yards below to the west – he hollered several times before she turned around, confused, and she yelled back she had followed the arrow. Apparently, she hadn’t seen the uphill arrow at all, and was quite proud of herself that she had correctly followed the signs. Sigh. (On our way back, Chris found a fallen sign at the Big Cienaga junction that would have certainly indicated more clearly the correct way up had it been standing – Jane felt vindicated, which is always a good thing.) Reunited after her backtrack up to the summit trail, we reached the summit just under two hours after we started. We ate our lunch of protein bars and shakes (Jane had an apple as well) and enjoyed the sights – Catalina was just visible through the marine haze. Leaving the summit after about 30 minutes, we followed the trail eastward down the ridge to a junction with an alternate trail above Windy Gap, one leading directly back down to the campground. We took this fork just to go somewhere new, and it was entirely unexciting save for running across a slender tower in the middle of nowhere that served no apparent purpose – hmmm. Back through the campground we went, then back westward down the PCT to Islip Saddle – we made much better time on the way down, summit-to-saddle in 1:15. This is one of our favorite hikes – we of course saw many hikers, most of them going the distance to Canada, but it’s the views from Windy Gap up to the top that make this hike so appealing, a very high reward-to-effort ratio. The weather helped greatly – warm enough that it was never chilly, even in the wind, but not so warm as to be uncomfortably hot. A great day.