Tuesday 11-30 More Hiking

Beautiful Camping Days

Today is the last day in November. Can you believe it, it's only 25 days until Christmas?

We love fall because the temperatures start to fall. This morning we woke up to 47 degrees, which was 10 degrees warmer than yesterday. The high got into the low 70s.

I made pancakes for breakfast. Then we went on a 7.5 mile hike. We started the hike by walking the main road for a mile to avoid some of the mud on the trail. The trail runs through trees so it's going to take awhile to dry out. For us to get to the road we hiked a short trail behind our site, that took us to the tent sites. As we walked through this area we saw a few deer at the CCC Picnic Pavilion. After walking through the area we picked up the road to the cancer research center where we got on the hiking trail. As we were walking the road we saw our neighbor walking his dog. After saying our hellos we continued to the trail. We hiked the Pine Gulch trail for about a mile to Roosevelt's Cutoff, which was .46 mile trail. Then we got back on Pine Gulch for another mile back to Roosevelt's Cutoff. The trail took us up and down a ravine, crossed the ravine by bridge a couple of times and through the trees. We were the only ones on the trail and had a very peaceful hike.

 

Old logging pond

 

Larry resting 

 

One of the bridges we walked on

There was a huge forest fire in Buescher State Park in 2012 that took out a lot of the loblolly pines. As we hiked the trail on Pine Gulch we were surprised to see how the forest is coming back.

 

The loblolly pine forest returns

In the afternoon I did an hour walk around. I started the walk by taking the CCC Crossover to the day area. It was a short trail that went through the tree and over the CCC bridge and up the hill using a few steps to the day area. I took a picture of the CCC Recreation building. Then I walked the main road to the tent area. Across the street from the tent there's a point of interest called Big Tree Retreat, where a big cedar elm stands. Then I continued my walk by walking Cozy Circle for a half hour. It was a nice walk.

 

CCC Picnic Pavilion

 

Old giant cedar elm in Big Tree Retreat

 

CCC Recreation Center

I did my Solitaire and Mahjong Daily Challenges and the Event: Two Game Tango Mini of 10 games (5 Pyramid and 5 Tri Peaks). It took me 32 minutes and 44 seconds, which put me in 11th in my group. I did some Sudoku games. Larry read.

After dinner we went on a half hour walk. By the end of the day I did 29,000 steps, which put me in 4th place in my group.