On a warm July Sunday, Ollie and I set out to climb Windy Hill with no particular expectations. Leaving from our house on Town Trail, we gradually started to climb through the trees, which opened up at this familiar old corral. But today’s hike was special because the sky was amazing–full of wispy, swirly clouds. When we reached the first water stop, a bench with a view in the shade, we could see the twin peaks of Windy Hill in the distance but the sky stole the show (above picture). I thought to myself: “Ollie, hope you like this kind of Sunday church service!”
The trail to the bench is quite steep, but after that point, it becomes more gradual. We settled into a fast yet relaxed pace for the remainder of the climb to the 1900 ft elevation of Windy Hill. We stopped for water every 30 minutes and reached the top at the 2 hour mark.
Normally by July any flowers are dying back. But the spring was very wet, and there were still water seeps around the top of Windy Hill. Pockets of flowers were thriving. A combination of a panting dog and a very sweaty hiker led to this photo and water stop, where again we were amazed by the speckled sky.
We were grateful for the occasional breeze at the top of Windy Hill, cutting the heat. It was interesting to see how much vegetation they had mowed down – to protect us from wildfires down below where we live. Now the trail flatten out and started downwards, and Ollie was eager to go! He was impatient as I snapped one more photo of clarkia, sticky monkey-flower, and sky – and ended up in the frame.
So I let him off leash for the descent. A smart dog that Ollie. He trotted ahead of me, stopping at each shady spot to wait for my two knees to catch up with his four legs. We reached our house after a total of about 8 miles and 3.5 hours.
