Ellen organized this hike earlier this week and posted it on the group's new forum, heylo. (It replaced MeetUp in January which got too expensive to maintain) It was my first official hike with the new forum and I'm glad I participated.
We were a group of six people, all that Ellen knew from her mountain bike group. We got to the trailhead just after 7am. I brought Hansel along and he did very well once we were on the trail.
I discovered at the trailhead that my gallon jug of fresh water had leaked during the drive. I must not have closed the valves properly again. And to our surprise, the Sawmill springs was bonedry again and I was unable to replenish the lost water.
The rain from Wednesday brought out the wildflowers. I've never seen so many sunflowers! The common mullein is blooming everywhere above the 7500' elevation! The entire area will explode with color once the monsoon arrives in this part of the state. (Our next big rain is forecasted for the 24th) Bees were already trying to get inside the still-closed flowers. I also saw ladybugs here.
I liked this group. Victor, one of Ellen's biking friends, was up front but always stopped to allow the slower hikers to get caught up. I was stopping a lot for photographs, but I felt strong and had no light-headed episodes today. I simply have to do more elevation hiking more often.
Three young men passed us going up. They were still on the peak when we arrived 30 minutes later. We passed three more groups of twos going down. Obviously a weekday holiday is a popular time to hit the mountains.
No comments:
Post a Comment