A couple weeks ago I decided it was time to find a new trail to hike. So I found a couple, one being a block up from the Rock City Café. Normally I hit the trail around 5:00-5:30 but this morning I got a late start and didn't get to the trail head until 6:10. Since I left the house so late I figured I could just leave the flashlight at home. Bad idea. When I got there I decided to check what time sunrise was. It had been 6:35 just a couple weeks ago. Now it was 7:10 meaning I would have enough light to start hiking around 6:35-6:40. So I had to sit in the car and wait for a bit before starting my hike.
My plan was to do a minimum of 10 miles. I ended up doing 12 that day. It's a lot easier than Daisy Mountain since there are no really steep inclines but there is still quite a bit of up and down. Needless to say I was sore for a couple days after this one. About a mile into the hike I realized I forgot the memory card for the Nikon DSLR I was hauling around. So I had to take all my pictures that day with my phone. I was impressed by the views of this hike. I only had to get 3/4 of a mile in to get some really good views of the canyon. After just over 2 miles the trail drops into a creek where I had a fun time trying to figure out the best way to cross without getting wet. After that it was a pretty moderate hike just climbing over one small hill at a time. Once I passed up Black Canyon City I decided to call it a day and head back. On the way back I explored an active gold mining camp.
This was my first hike every wearing Under Armor and I have to say I was impressed. Normally I wear cotton and it makes hiking in the cold suck due to the fact I would sweat and then get cold when the wind hits. With Under Armor my shirt stayed dry and I stayed warm. So now I no longer despise hiking in chilly weather.
Yesterday I decided to wake up early and take my nephew Jeremy up the trail with me. We started just after 6. This time I had my flashlight and my camera had it's memory card. The whole time I got to hear Jeremy asking if we can shoot my .45. So when we got to the creek I had Jeremy find a bottle to shoot in the creek. I have to say I was pretty impressed with this kid's aim. At 20-25 yards he was getting shots right next to the bottle.
After doing some shooting we crossed the creek and climbed over some rocks. When we went to cross back over we saw something above a branch of a tree. All I could see was fur above the branch that was an orangish brown like an orangutan. Then I saw a tail flap around. Now my view from here was not good so I decided to sneak around to see what it was. As I got down to the creek I made a turn and there was a cow staring me in the face. As we got to the top of the trail we could see 3 or 4 more cows back on the other side of the creek. Guess that explains all the fences. I knew they were either keeping in cows or bison because of the cow pies everywhere and now the mystery was solved.
Jeremy shooting the. 45.
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