Hiking Mindego Hill, part 2
Jan. 2nd, 2022 10:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerI have enough pictures I want to share from hiking to Mindego Hill on Friday that I split them across two blog entries. I posted part 1 yesterday. Here's part 2, picking up with us still atop Mindego Hill in Russian RIdge Preserve.
In the previous blog I noted that being atop Mindego Hill provides 360° views... though I only showed one direction of views, looking toward Hawk Ridge and Russian Ridge. Here are others.
There are a lot of ways to describe where we are. Russian Ridge Preserve is the name of the park. Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD) is the agency that manages it. Santa Cruz Mountains and Coast Range Mountains are geographical terms. So is "in the mountains above Palo Alto", particularly as we drove up Page Mill Road to get here... though at this point we're over the ridge from from the SF Bay side of the mountains and on the Pacific Ocean side. Perhaps it would be more appropriate to say, "In the mountains above La Honda"? Or Pescadero? In the photo above you're looking out to the west. The Pacific Ocean is in the distance. The small town of La Honda would be visible if its residents didn't strategically build their houses beneath tree cover to evade surveillance. (That's not an exaggeration.)
The trail to Mindego Hill Friday was surprisingly busy. We passed several small groups coming out as we headed in, including a person Hawk knows! We stopped to chat for 15 minutes. We shared the summit with another few small groups coming or going. I thought this trail was off the beaten path enough that we might have it to ourselves. Well, at least the groups were small enough, singles or pairs like us, that it never felt crowded. And everyone out here was a serious hiker, here to enjoy the scenery like us.
Humans weren't our only companions on the trail. The last 1/2 up to the summit is open range land for cattle. Cows weren't at the summit Friday afternoon. Cows don't really care much to climb peaks. They stood somewhat below it giving us the stinkeye as we passed. Though it's clear they come up here occasionally to show us what they think of our hiking trails. Yeah, that's a cow shit seeming to anchor that trail sign in place.
We made our way back with darkness already falling across the deep valleys of the area even though it wasn't yet 4pm.
As we continued the hike back after 4pm the sun kept getting lower in the sky, casting new light on things we'd already seen. "Always check your 6," paramilitary types would say. Here, ours is looking back at Mindego Hill.
Sunset continued to be the theme as we made our way back to the trailhead.
Back at the trailhead we expected to find the place clearing out but people were actually arriving. They were setting up blankets on the grass atop the knob (remember, we had to hike back up to get to the start!) to watch the sun set over the Santa Cruz Mountains.
We might've stayed for the sunset but we were already tired and spent, plus it was getting chillier. Plus, we were hungry and wanted to get home for dinner and our New Year's Eve celebration!
In the previous blog I noted that being atop Mindego Hill provides 360° views... though I only showed one direction of views, looking toward Hawk Ridge and Russian Ridge. Here are others.
There are a lot of ways to describe where we are. Russian Ridge Preserve is the name of the park. Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD) is the agency that manages it. Santa Cruz Mountains and Coast Range Mountains are geographical terms. So is "in the mountains above Palo Alto", particularly as we drove up Page Mill Road to get here... though at this point we're over the ridge from from the SF Bay side of the mountains and on the Pacific Ocean side. Perhaps it would be more appropriate to say, "In the mountains above La Honda"? Or Pescadero? In the photo above you're looking out to the west. The Pacific Ocean is in the distance. The small town of La Honda would be visible if its residents didn't strategically build their houses beneath tree cover to evade surveillance. (That's not an exaggeration.)
The trail to Mindego Hill Friday was surprisingly busy. We passed several small groups coming out as we headed in, including a person Hawk knows! We stopped to chat for 15 minutes. We shared the summit with another few small groups coming or going. I thought this trail was off the beaten path enough that we might have it to ourselves. Well, at least the groups were small enough, singles or pairs like us, that it never felt crowded. And everyone out here was a serious hiker, here to enjoy the scenery like us.
Humans weren't our only companions on the trail. The last 1/2 up to the summit is open range land for cattle. Cows weren't at the summit Friday afternoon. Cows don't really care much to climb peaks. They stood somewhat below it giving us the stinkeye as we passed. Though it's clear they come up here occasionally to show us what they think of our hiking trails. Yeah, that's a cow shit seeming to anchor that trail sign in place.
We made our way back with darkness already falling across the deep valleys of the area even though it wasn't yet 4pm.
As we continued the hike back after 4pm the sun kept getting lower in the sky, casting new light on things we'd already seen. "Always check your 6," paramilitary types would say. Here, ours is looking back at Mindego Hill.
Sunset continued to be the theme as we made our way back to the trailhead.
Back at the trailhead we expected to find the place clearing out but people were actually arriving. They were setting up blankets on the grass atop the knob (remember, we had to hike back up to get to the start!) to watch the sun set over the Santa Cruz Mountains.
We might've stayed for the sunset but we were already tired and spent, plus it was getting chillier. Plus, we were hungry and wanted to get home for dinner and our New Year's Eve celebration!
