Hiking at Russian Ridge, part 2
My blog about our hike Sunday at Russian Ridge Open Space unexpectedly grew large- just like the hike itself more than doubled in length based on choices we made on the fly- so I've split it into a second blog entry.
I left off in part 1 of our hike at Russian Ridge with us angling up a wide-open hillside just beneath the ridge. After climbing gradually for a while with 180° views across the mountains to the Pacific Ocean (not that we could see the water, it being totally socked in with thick fog) the trail dipped under tree cover and began descending.
Hey, look, fall foliage! Is it time to stop and smell the roses? ...No, wait, that's poison oak! 😰
Shortly after this photo op we reached the next trail junction. This is where I thought we'd loop back up to the ridge and then back to the trailhead, making a nice little hike of just over 2 miles for the day.
"How about we go further, to the Hawk Trail?" Hawk suggested.
It would not only more than double our mileage but add at several hundred additional feet of ascent. The weather was nice and we were enjoying it, so I agreed.
We even saw an actual hawk on the Hawk trail. 😂
Usually when we hike the Hawk Trail at Russian Ridge we loop around so that we're hiking down it. Sunday we went up. It's steep! Going up it makes it a different kind of challenge. Going down it's all ankles and trying not to slip on the dry, dusty surface. Going up it's all cardio and muscle tone.
Finally we got up to the top. ...Not that the top is even the top!
From atop the Hawk Trail there's still plenty more hiking, including another few hundred feet of ascent. On the whole day we hiked over 5 miles, more than we estimated even when we made the choice to extend our hike. By the time we were done we were tired and sore. But it was a good kind of tired and sore! It's been too many weeks- six of them, now- since we got out like this. Hopefully we won't wait another 6 before doing something like this again.
I left off in part 1 of our hike at Russian Ridge with us angling up a wide-open hillside just beneath the ridge. After climbing gradually for a while with 180° views across the mountains to the Pacific Ocean (not that we could see the water, it being totally socked in with thick fog) the trail dipped under tree cover and began descending.
Hey, look, fall foliage! Is it time to stop and smell the roses? ...No, wait, that's poison oak! 😰
Shortly after this photo op we reached the next trail junction. This is where I thought we'd loop back up to the ridge and then back to the trailhead, making a nice little hike of just over 2 miles for the day.
"How about we go further, to the Hawk Trail?" Hawk suggested.
It would not only more than double our mileage but add at several hundred additional feet of ascent. The weather was nice and we were enjoying it, so I agreed.
We even saw an actual hawk on the Hawk trail. 😂
Usually when we hike the Hawk Trail at Russian Ridge we loop around so that we're hiking down it. Sunday we went up. It's steep! Going up it makes it a different kind of challenge. Going down it's all ankles and trying not to slip on the dry, dusty surface. Going up it's all cardio and muscle tone.
Finally we got up to the top. ...Not that the top is even the top!
From atop the Hawk Trail there's still plenty more hiking, including another few hundred feet of ascent. On the whole day we hiked over 5 miles, more than we estimated even when we made the choice to extend our hike. By the time we were done we were tired and sore. But it was a good kind of tired and sore! It's been too many weeks- six of them, now- since we got out like this. Hopefully we won't wait another 6 before doing something like this again.