And then we climbed a mountain
Since we started hiking this year we've climbed many things but considering my struggles to get my heart into shape to handle the challenges of climbing in the elevation, the most elevation change we've encountered is around 650ft. This weekend we hiked Mt Neahkahnie, the highest point being at 1,680 ft
The trail says it's an elevation gain of approximately 900 ft but we started further up the trail at short sand beach which is at sea level so I climbed every foot (my legs are still cursing me)
This was at the end of the Elk Flats trail where we started at the point it connected to the mountain trail, this is an inlet on the coast complete with a waterfall coming down from the right of the photo The trail up the mountain changed for every bit we climbed, changes in the type of plant life relative to the tree line. The only type of "animals" we saw - despite every trail guide talking about their abundance - was spiders, snails, slugs, snakes and salamanders. By the salamander I was a bit concerned that the pattern of S's would continue and a skunk would show up, not cool.
Couldn't say which winter this was from, this may well be left over from the storms we had in 2009 that did a tremendous amount of damage to the coast. The wood was at varying stages of decomposition, some of it aided by the bugs who think tree is a delicious meal. The only bonus of the downed trees, branches on the trail to give me something to walk on and avoid the lovely mud that is ever-present on the trails this time of year.
The view from the top was amazing, once we got to the trail at the top is was a 30 foot climb up a rocky slope - crawling would best describe the final bit of the climb. This is the city of Manzanita with a light layer of clouds to the south. Next time we decide to climb this particular mountain we're going to try the trail to the south for a different view but there are plenty more trail and mountains to climb that I certainly won't lack for something to do
This was at the end of the Elk Flats trail where we started at the point it connected to the mountain trail, this is an inlet on the coast complete with a waterfall coming down from the right of the photo The trail up the mountain changed for every bit we climbed, changes in the type of plant life relative to the tree line. The only type of "animals" we saw - despite every trail guide talking about their abundance - was spiders, snails, slugs, snakes and salamanders. By the salamander I was a bit concerned that the pattern of S's would continue and a skunk would show up, not cool.
Couldn't say which winter this was from, this may well be left over from the storms we had in 2009 that did a tremendous amount of damage to the coast. The wood was at varying stages of decomposition, some of it aided by the bugs who think tree is a delicious meal. The only bonus of the downed trees, branches on the trail to give me something to walk on and avoid the lovely mud that is ever-present on the trails this time of year.
The view from the top was amazing, once we got to the trail at the top is was a 30 foot climb up a rocky slope - crawling would best describe the final bit of the climb. This is the city of Manzanita with a light layer of clouds to the south. Next time we decide to climb this particular mountain we're going to try the trail to the south for a different view but there are plenty more trail and mountains to climb that I certainly won't lack for something to do
Comments
Post a Comment
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!