Got to the trail head at 8 am. There were already several people and their families there. It was a 100 foot walk to the monument. I thought it was going to be a one mile hike. Not sure where i got that idea from.
I took off alone but was soon hiking with a nice young guy, and we connected with 2 others.
I really wanted to hike alone so i dropped way back. I was feeling sad and anxious and excited and tear full and grateful to finally be on the trail. To be honest, i am tired of planning for it, thinking about it and talking about it. It feels so good to be actually hiking. They stopped to chat and i continued on. I was hiking alone and not really paying attention when a 6 foot rattlesnake twisted and writhed down the slope and landed at my feet, one foot way.
He was way aggressive.and hissed and rattled. Well, i screamed like a girl and ran. My heart was racing like crazy. The slope was steep and there was no easy way around it. It had a long black tongue and it kept flicking it. The big group came up behind me and we all took pictures and they said things like "huge" and "giant". I mean, this snake was a big one. Well, it was not going anywhere so we all crept down the brush below to get by it. Some people don't see a rattlesnake for weeks, i got to see one on my first day. That was a bit close though.
I hiked alone until lunch then slowly fell in with a guy named Stephan. Turns out he is from northwest WA state too. We got to talking and missed a trail junction and walked some extra miles. We caught ourselves and headed back and got off course again and had to bushwhack through and long dry creekbed of poised ivy, sheesh! The 15 mile waterhole was dry so i stopped and rested and cooked dinner and took off hiking again up a steep 2 mile switchback. I camped on the ridge top above Lake Morano. Tomorrow it will be a short 2 mike hike to the lake for a rest and stretch. I had a really good day. 17 miles. My hips and knees are sore. The sunset was beautiful.
I took off alone but was soon hiking with a nice young guy, and we connected with 2 others.
I really wanted to hike alone so i dropped way back. I was feeling sad and anxious and excited and tear full and grateful to finally be on the trail. To be honest, i am tired of planning for it, thinking about it and talking about it. It feels so good to be actually hiking. They stopped to chat and i continued on. I was hiking alone and not really paying attention when a 6 foot rattlesnake twisted and writhed down the slope and landed at my feet, one foot way. 
He was way aggressive.and hissed and rattled. Well, i screamed like a girl and ran. My heart was racing like crazy. The slope was steep and there was no easy way around it. It had a long black tongue and it kept flicking it. The big group came up behind me and we all took pictures and they said things like "huge" and "giant". I mean, this snake was a big one. Well, it was not going anywhere so we all crept down the brush below to get by it. Some people don't see a rattlesnake for weeks, i got to see one on my first day. That was a bit close though.  |
| Many of the Yucca blooms have a pink tinge to them that I have never seen before |
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| It is so much more lush and green than I thought it would be |
The smells are awesome here. The mansanita is sweet and there is a purple flower that just bowls me over with its perfume smell. I thought the landscape would be dry, barren and boring...but it is not. It is lush and green from the rains. The valleys are green and there are large stands of grass swaying in the wind. It is beautiful and so very interesting. I actually had one man say to me before I left that the first 200 miles would be boring, that there would be nothing to see. He was so very wrong and i realize that so many people said stuff about my trip that they did really know what they were talking about.
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| A really cool rock formation. It looks to me like marks made by water but it is really dry here. |
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| I am not sure what this is. It grows on the bushes like a parasitic plant. |
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