This was a challenging but wonderful hike. It's not a terribly long trail, but there is a lot of uphill hiking, some of it steep. The views at the top, however, are spectacular. If you're worried about whether you can handle it, the good news is that you can do a moderate part of the hike to the saddle area where you get excellent views. From the saddle you can clearly see the remaining uphill and make a decision about what you want to do. Also, we rode the gondola up, which cuts off about 1,000 fees of uphill. The part of the trail you miss is just a trail through the woods. So, unless you want to prove how tough you are, or need to save the cost of the gondola, by all means take the gondola and start hiking the trail from there.

It's my very first solo hiking. The path is clear. The track mostly in an open space with fascinating view. It also has a non-flush toilet near the Saddle point. The hardest part is from Saddle point to the Summit point. But it was all paid off when I reached the top.

Time was against me, so I walked up the Tiki trail and then to the Ben Lomond lookout. If it says 1 hour I learnt to be kind to me and double it. So 1 hour on tiki trail is for normal people. It took me 2 hours. Nice and rugged with mist challenges in the first quarter. The lookout was great for a light lunch and sunshine. I’ll have to come back to complete this walk. Definantly need the daylight for the Real Ben walk. If you have bad knees or have trifocals I’d suggest the gondola down.