Please forgive the second hiking post in a week - I guess I need to expand my horizons a little.
But speaking of horizons - holy atmospheric refraction!
This has officially become my new favorite hike - I can see myself climbing this sucker every weekend. It's 5 miles (round trip) of perfectly sloped switchbacks, shady and rugged, with pockets of wildflowers and wild herbs all the way, and views like this: 
Once you reach the top, you find yourself at the ruins of an old Victorian-style hotel called Echo Mountain House, and the remnants of an abandoned railroad. The hotel burned down in the early 1900's, and the railway was decommissioned 1938. It's pretty interesting to walk around imagining what it would all have looked like back then...
From this point you can actually continue on with several other hikes to higher summits, which we didn't attempt today but really hope to some other time (when we can get an earlier start and avoid some of the heat - and crowds. This baby is popular!)
I'll try to write about something a little more interesting than hiking this week, which could be difficult since tomorrow I begin my 10-week-long foray into full-time-working-stiff-dom. Yep, I'm a 9-to-5-er for the summer, hoping to come out on the other side with all my sanity, affability, and pluck intact! Serenity now...
2 comments:
great pics! yeah, that's the best hike around! would have been so cool to stay at that hotel circa 1900... always reminds me of the Overlook Hotel from 'The Shining'
You made your hike and the view from the top sound so beautiful it made me want to get out and hike. I'm so impressed with your commitment to getting outdoors. I hope your summer is better than anticipated. Maybe the boredom at work will spur creativity in your spare time.
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