Tuesday 12-7 Hiking the West Trail and West Loop

 

Let's go hiking

We woke up to a chilly morning but the wind was down. Last night our small electric heater ran continuously. Not complaining, it’s perfect weather.

After breakfast we went on a 4.5 hour hike for 9 miles. Today we started at the overflow parking lot where the West Trail begins. The west trail is 4.9 miles round trip. The west loop trail is 2.4 miles and is located at primitive campsite G. At places the trials are very challenging because it a steep climb on loose rocks. They weren’t as hard as yesterday because we didn’t have to climb over big boulders. The map is well marked where the trail is steep. We also hiked quite a bit of the riverbed that was also covered in loose rocks Occasionally the river bed had smooth slabs of granite which was great to walk on. We hiked along the river and saw nice rock walls made by the river. We hiked through the trees and saw pretty vistas. We hiked by a couple of ponds, over the river via rocks, saw the ranger station, a deer and beautiful scenery. We were the only ones hiking until the end of the hike. We met a couple loaded down with backpacks, they and their Husky were going to camp at one of the primitive sites. The dog had booties on. The master said he took the booties off for a bit but the dog didn't want to continue without them, the rocks were hard on his paws so they had to put them back on. We met a gentleman walking his four dogs on the trail. We saw a ranger and a guy and two gals. The trails were very challenging for us but very well used. We had a nice hike.

 

Sabinal River

The granite slabs we hiked on

A deer checking us out on the trail

Hiking through the trees

I ended up walking around the campground for a half hour to finish getting my steps. I did 27,000 steps. I played some Sudoku games. Larry finished a book and started another one.

For dessert I baked Nestle Toll House Seasonal Cookies. I baked 4 Peppermint Coca (chocolate cookies with peppermint chips) and 4 Snow Day (sugar cookies with white chocolate chips and snow flakes sprinkles). 

 

Dessert