Walkin' the Ridgeline

all pictures click to enlarge

We went from a gray Friday to a hazy Saturday to a clear, bright, and windy Sunday. Mary and I went for breakfast burritos. She had machaca. I just had the potato and ham and egg. At any rate we both had calories to burn, and it was a perfect clear day so I grabbed the camera and we headed to the park. It seems like I end up taking the same pictures over and over: the tunnel like trail, a view from the hillside (which almost never comes out), or various closeups of flowers, or what have you. And year after year the same cycle: here's the view in April, in August, October, or December. The green hills followed by gold hills, gray hills, and then back to green. Still, it's always new, and always just different enough to notice changes from the last time I was there. This is still the green part. The first picture is the entrance to the park. It's a long steep downhill, which makes for a long steep uphill to end any walk on.
And since it was clear we decided to take the trail that leads up to the ridgeline, and the top of the hills.

Also steep uphill.See? Mary is sixty. I'm fifty six. But we made it without any trouble. Much to be grateful for, right there. Here's the view looking east from the top of that trail. Notice the hilltop with the antenna in the center of the picture. That's a former Nike missile site overlooking North Orange County. For a long time it was just abandoned. You could walk right up to the empty missile vaults.We took the ridgeline road west for a ways.

Straight north of us Mt. Baldy hangs on to the last cap of snow.

This is the view south to the ocean. That's a disorienting feature of this corner of Southern California- You normally think of the ocean as being to the west, but around here the roads to the beach run north and south.

It's exhilarating, being up on the top of the world there. We almost took the long way around to the bottom of the park. But that would have meant climbing the very long steep road to get out of the park. So we didn't. Good call. Anyway. Mary just got back in, Booger the cat is bugging me for some attention, and I have a barbeque to light. It's a gift, I'm tellin' ya.

JWM