Let me start with the vital stats:
Date & Time: 2/2/2008, 12:45 to 4:15 PM
Location: Windy Hill (loop), Santa Cruz Mountain
Distance: 7.5 miles
Elevation change: 1,100 ft
Backpack weight: 12 lb
Me, Priya and my dad started the hike around 12:45, after exploring a new route to the Windy Hill open space preserve on CA hwy 35 (skyline blvd). Sure enough, the place was
very windy. This was the kickoff of the training for our Grand Canyon rim-to-rim backpacking adventure - just yesterday we applied for the back country hiking & camping permit for the first week of June.
The parking lot was windy, foggy and it was drizzling a bit. A storm / rain was predicted for the late afternoon and we were equipped with rain gears, but we decided to put them on at the very beginning. Temperature would be in the high 40's. The trail was wet and muddy - however all upper layer of the dirt must be washed out, so it was not as slipper as I expected by looking at it at the beginning. Similar to the Grand Canyon hike, we were to first downhill and then uphill on our way back. Struggling with the heavy wind, we crossed the so-called anniversary trail, I was hoping for calmer environment once we enter the woods. We bypassed the top of the hill before going downhill by taking an alternative route - this decision was influenced by the heavy winds. Once we entered the woods, things were much better, as expected. Soon we were welcomed by the tall redwoods and its 'siblings'.
The forest was very much like the temperate rain forest -- all green, lots of lichens on the trees, giant trees, not so dense though, and small green plants under the giants. The 'Wild Trees' book taught be to appreciate uniqueness of all the trees. Some trees are having structures like fractal images - repeating some basic structure over and over, while others are just more wild. Like humans, even two trees of the same species are not similar - they have their own
treeality.
We encountered a (freshly) fallen branch of a tree on our trail, which suggested that the wind was stronger than usual. We were losing elevation pretty steadily. Then we reached at a series of switchbacks and the down hill was a bit steeper. The vegetation was quite different even in such a small difference in elevation. While going thru switchbacks we talked about how people usually cut short-cuts while climbing Girnar or doing 'Girnar Pradaxina'. Short cuts should be avoided while hiking, because it's not only dangerous for the hiker, it's also bad for the environment (remember the good old 'leave only foot steps and take only pictures' while going in the wild). Making 'your own trail' increases erosion, destroys stuff growing in open area and such. May be it's not entirely the youth's fault, may be youth in India needs more opportunities to show off (like doing triathlons?).
Anyways, the woods were more deciduous towards the bottom of the valley and we were at the end of the Hamms Gulch trail. The original idea was to do a loop back thru another trail, but we felt that we might run out of the time, so after having the lunch of trail mix and Cliff bars we headed back on the same trail.
While coming back, I noticed that algae and lichens grow only on some trees, not all. Looking at such 'altruistic' trees reminded me the words from the Arkee's Garaba (you will need Gipika fonts to read this)
ysJtmgut Jnuaeklu Ftje :i øâtltu,
mnusu øtC2txlt, yk"t2e mtuzltu 
After having a friendly encounter of a big yellow snail and burning a lot of calories going uphill, we ended up back on the parking lot around 4:15. The last stretch of .9 miles were most difficult due to wind. It felt even more powerful, may be it was really stronger, or may be we were exhausted. All in all, it was a great beginning of the 'season'.
(Couple more pics at
http://public.fotki.com/mehul-asha/windy-hill-hike/)
ion, and the effect of rain, wind and CO2 causes the honey-comb like structure. We had our last breakfast of avocado and wheat breads sandwiches under the giant rock. I felt like taking a nap, but we returned instead. On the way back, we noticed a huge beehive on a redwood tree.
