Mount Cargill photos - cadence's weblog (personal blog)

This article contains 6 MB of inline images. All of them have appropriate alt text. All files are 1500x1125.

Last time I walked up Mount Cargill was in November, slightly more than 6 months ago.

Today I walked up it again. Let's make a comparison of how the two trips went for me, starting with November's one.

Since the walk is almost entirely obscured by trees on both sides until the summit, there were few opportunities to capture picturesque scenery along the way. You'll notice that a lot of the photographs are taken from the same place on both trips. This was partly on purpose, partly because they were some of the only places for pictures.

On November's walk, I left at around 6 pm, sunset being close to 10. I had tried part of the walk before, so I knew what I was in for: 570 meters of elevation gain and 4.6 kilometres of distance. And back again. It was a nice clear day with a glorious blue sky. I knew that the view from the top was going to be amazing.

Looking at a green hill far away with blue gradient sky behind it. The hill is framed by plants close to the camera, and the camera is vertically higher up than the hill is, showing the hill's top. — What a nice day for a walk.

The climb continued, and I was nearing the peak. Things started to go wrong.

Looking ahead at the path, with all kinds of trees on either side. The path leads to steps. The sky is now completely grey with no texture.

As I climbed higher, the air I was walking through became filled with thicker and thicker fog. I could feel it in every breath.

The camera is panned down. Close to the camera filling the bottom of the frame is a rock edge, and above that, nothing but featureless grey. — Looking off the edge of the world.

Regardless, I continued walking. I was still going to complete the climb for myself.

At the top of Mount Cargill is a radio transmission tower that's clearly visible on the skyline even from all the way down in the city. I was going to see it up close for the first time.

The path leads up a final set of stone steps, with the transmission tower a short distance away. The fog is so thick that the tower fades into mist, its midpoint being almost indistinguishable from the sky. — Wow, this game's graphics are great, but I guess I need to upgrade my hardware to run it properly.

Standing underneath the tower. There is the outline of a grey building visible in the grey mist. The sun weakly shines through, a perfect dim circle that's comfortable to look directly at. The ground is gravel with an unattractive puddle in the middle of it. — Am I supposed to be getting a better draw distance than this?

It turned out to be quite disappointing, if you can't see the funny side. I was looking forward to looking down from the peak and taking in the view.

I didn't try the climb again until today.

Today's journey started off much the same, apart from having to leave in the morning due to winter's sunset time being much earlier in the day.

This photo is taken in the same place as the first one earlier, and looks almost exactly the same.

The walk rapidly started to look much more promising.

A vast landscape of sloping hills meeting a cloud layer beneath a blue sky with more clouds far above. It looks incredible.

This time I could see off the edge of that rock.

Similar scene to the last picture, but this time with the rock at the bottom of it. — This is what I should have seen the first time. Now I'm really sad that I missed out.

I continued the climb and found a new viewpoint.

Similar scene to the last picture, but the camera is panned to the left, revealing flat green plains with hedges at the foot of the darker tree-filled hills. The foreground is dominated by a large cracked rock, and the slope of the hill that the photo is taken from is visible. — This is my favourite picture out of all of them.

Finally I got to see the tower.

Same scene approaching the tower with no grey fog at all. Some segments of the tower are painted orange, some are painted white. — Turns out it's not all grey after all.

And I finally got to see what the rest of the world looks like when I look down from the top.

Looking down the other side of the hill. A huge sprawling city dominates the view, with only a couple of high-rise buildings. Behind the city is the ocean, and above the ocean is the pale sky.

I hope you enjoyed this tour of the hill with me.

All photos were taken on my phone camera. If you want the original size pictures, ~6000x4000, just email me to ask.

I took other pictures, but I chose to upload these specific ones so that I could tell a story with them.

I also took some cute selfies, which you can ask for if I already know you.

Cadence