Top of the World

After the 'Morning Reading' we both felt the need for some real exercise and spike is always up for it. While I was in the shower John came up with the idea of driving up to the Hood Mountain Regional Park at the top of Los Alamos road. We used to go up there all the time with Ozzie because the steep trail leads down to a wonderful swimming hole at the top of Santa Rosa Creek. It was very different back then because it was before the Glass Fire burned through there, wiping out the park and most of the houses along the road on the way up there. There have been a couple of fires up there over the summer which have been put out before they did much damage, but attracting a lot of attention as all the trucks drove up the road behind our house.

The park was closed for over a year but has now reopened so we decided to take the rather hairy (rhymes with scary) drive up. Los Alamos is a normal road down near the bottom where we live, but it gets narrower and windier and more exposed as it nears the top of the ridge. There are no fences or barriers by the side of the road. It used to feel somewhat protected by trees on the drop-off side, but almost all of them have burned. The underbrush is starting to come back, but that doesn't make the road any wider! All I can think of when we drive up there is: 1) I really wouldn't want to drive up here at night 2)nWhere did they put 15 fire trucks and 3) What if you met a fire truck (or ANY truck) going up there?

I tried to give a sense of how exposed and steep it is with my two main photos.

Once up on the ridge, the road goes steeply down into the park and once parked in the parking lot, the trail goes steeply down to the creek. I mused as we trudged down there that it was a ironic that we had to go through all this to find a swimming hole for Spike when we live right across the road from the same creek.

They have improved the trail a lot since we were there last, clearing it of weeds and tall grass all the way down, but the oaks and some of the maples are probably not going to come back. These are the same hills that we look at from our porch and a close up view of the hillside is not encouraging. But the weather was pleasant and shady once we got to the creek and we sat on a log  and watched Spike wade around.

We probably should have taken a picnic lunch and stayed awhile as the hike back up to the parking lot was hot and steep. I prefer steep up to steep down but the final two pitches are the steepest of all and we were both pretty wrecked as we got into the car. 

It may be awhile before we do it again, but it is interesting to see the progress of recovery, both in nature and in a few new houses which have appeared.