This past weekend (May 2, to be exact), I went up to Sweeney Ridge for the 2nd time. It’s kind of a weird “trail” – it’s really a paved road for about 1.5 miles, then I veer off onto…another paved road that leads to a completely abandoned, falling apart (the point of dangerous) old Nike missle radar station. One can also veer off to a dirt trail that is more hiking-ish that leads towards the point where the bay was first discovered a long time ago (yes, I am very precise, aren’t I?) and most people go there. But I was after abandoned buildings (link and link, copyright respective photographers)
The paved road for the first part, leading up to the split, is fairly steep, then really steep, then fairly steep again. It really kills because it just goes up and up for a pretty long time. The first time I did it, I went straight on up with a full photo backup and I thought I was going to die. This time, I stopped about 2/3 of the way up long enough to take a large format photograph (so…15-20 minutes) and that was a perfect amount of time for the trail mix to kick in, for my legs to get enough rest, but to not lock up and refuse to move on. If I had not done that I would have had a serious problem.
Once you reach the top (and this is after you’ve passed the fog line, by the way, and have been walking in the rain for a while), it’s windy as you are completely exposed. Wind coming right off the ocean is just blasting you from the west. Pretty intense hike for about 4 miles total.
Great place for abandoned places photography. Images to come. 5×7 images…