Climbing El Toro

My goal is to climb to the top of El Toro (1,400 ft).
I plan to make a partial assent at least once a week,
hiking farther up each time until I finally make it to the top.
El Toro is practically in my back yard. This view was taken from the corner of my street.

I spotted these blossoms just around the corner from my house,
which is where I start each climb. Taking my camera adds some weight to carry, but it also gives me reasons to stop every so often and shoot (and rest).

Reaching the water tank is a pretty good hike by itself, but on this morning, I push on.

It looks so far away. Last week I made it up to the lone tree,
which is at the top of the lower summit.

This is a view of Paradise Valley to the west.
I took this standing very near that tree you saw in the previous photo.
Next time, I am going to start out in the afternoon
so I can photograph across the valley to the east.
It's a pretty spectacular view of Morgan Hill.

This is where I turned around.
I took several photos trying to show how steep this last section is,
but they all made it look like a gentle slope. It is not.
It is a steep, rugged, quad-burning, heart-thumping, oxygen-sucking climb.