Hiking up the Ridge

Not far from Martha and Tony's neighborhood, there is this ridge you can hike up. It's a couple of neighborhoods over from theirs.... You drive through the neighborhood(s) until you get to the top and there is an entrance to the Trail. You check in at the guard station on the way up the hill. It's interesting..you're in this really nice neighborhood, with some spectacular houses and then all of the sudden you are at the top and you can access the trail.

At first you are thinking "Oh, this will be a breeze...because it's not very steep, it's just a wide dirt/mud (depending on recent rainfall) trail.

After a mile or so you can feel it getting steeper and you can look back and see the city skyline. It was cloudy on the day we went...which turned out to be a blessing in disguise....because it wasn't too hot! The view was not as nice...but that's okay.

 When we got to the first set of steps we saw a dog....followed by a group of 5 young people heading down. We asked them how the trail was  ans they said they had no problems along the way and we should get to the top no problem...so that was encouraging.

                  That tower on top way in the background is where we wanted to get.

there were some ropes as the trail got a little steeper...just to help you pull you self up...or on the way down to keep your balance so you didn't tumble down

The clouds really started moving in at one point...we thought it was going to rain...but it didn't. After  a few minutes the clouds moved out again...that was kind of cool. (literally...hahah)

It was really narrow in a few places...I just tried not to think too much about it and walked fast. Funny...last time we did this hike John got a little nervous...this time he was fine...I was the one who got a little freaked out.

the top!

 

looking over to the other side of the island-a little sunnier there

Then...it was time to go down again...John took this picture of me heading down...kind of cool when you see the narrow dirt trail that goes on and on.......

see the green dot...me

We were up there for over 3 hours...and when we finally got to the bottom we were kind of tired. We passed a few people on their way up...there was one group in particular that I can tell had absolutely NO idea what they were in for....hahaha. but that's okay...neither did we the first time we hiked it.
That evening while we were soaking in the hot tub back at the house we spotted some whales swimming by...kind of a fun way to end the day.