Despite the heat this weekend (yesterday it got up to 90 degrees), Chad and I got in another hike in the Cleveland National Forest. (If you’re wondering where Bella was, she was at home completely rejecting any physical activity after ten hours of track practice a week, and lounging around watching One Tree Hill on her laptop.)
This time we didn’t pass the Candy Store, we just parked directly across from it and took the Upper San Juan Loop trail. (The Candy Store was a bust. Good for a cold can of soda and an ice cream bar – but pathetic selection of candy. Just bite the bullet and call yourself what you are: Mountain Mini-Mart.)
And although the hike was only just over two miles, the heat and the climbing gave us enough of a workout to be satisfying. We managed to avoid all the poison oak and didn’t swallow any bugs, although there were plenty to be swallowed. We also managed to eat our chocolate and oranges by the water again. And again we were completely alone on the trail. Where are all the people who belong to the cars in the trailhead parking lot? We even managed to forget our camera again.
But this time we thought to pull out our cellphones for pics. The images are small and fuzzy (I am so over my RAZR), but they do give an impression of how pleasant our day was together. I took the top three pics and Chad took the rest. He did better with the “landscapes” (I used quotations, because can a tree butthole be considered a landscape?)
My photo of Chad.
Chad’s photo of me.
Chad must have stopped for a pee break, because I don’t recollect ever being that far ahead of him on this hike – or on any hike for that matter…