I wanted a good workout but I was not in the mood for a long drive (most of the hikes I do are 30 to 50 miles away) so I drove to the next town, Woodinville, to hike the Tolt Pipeline Trail, going up and down Heart Attack Hill.
Here is the hill, looking down:
As I was going down, shortly after I took this picture, I saw a guy on a bike at the bottom, trying to ride up the hill. Even though he was decked out in the full regalia of Spandex and what-not, and had a very expensive-looking bike, he just couldn’t get the momentum to go up.
He was frustrated and vented to me on the design of the gate at the bottom of the hill. He said you couldn’t fit the bike through it and therefore could not get much of a running start. He was disgusted with the design and suggested that whoever did it was not a cyclist.
I can’t blame him for not being able to go up this hill from a stopped position. At least he tried, which is more than I would care to do.
This hill is about a twenty degree grade – so it is not drastic – but it is just plain steep and it is about .4 mile from bottom to top. It is a grind. It always feels pretty good when you get to the top.
My route takes me about 3.5 miles out, so 7 miles out-and-back and along the way there are numerous long ups and downs. It is definitely a good workout and on a nice day like today there were plenty of runners, walkers, and cyclists (and evidence of equine activity as well).
On the way back, nearing the parking lot, I noticed cows and sheep in a pasture off the trail:
I should do this one more often, I tend not to think of it but it is a nice walk with plenty of elevation gain and loss. No awesome forest or mountain peaks but it is nice anyway.