Meanders and Undulations

Remember the saying,"going around the mountain one more time"?  That's what today's hike felt like. We had worked our first week at Father's Heart Ranch and were hiking with the McClinticks, our partners for this project. (We had worked at Cherry Valley with them four years ago.) The morning looked promising weather wise, with a lovely sunrise.

It wasn't far to the trail head in their jeep, kind of in our neighbourhood. We looked for the start of the Kim Nicol Trail, using the map that the guys had downloaded on the apps on their phones.

The guys march on ahead

Soon a fork appeared in the road, and Bill and Betsy wanted to take the short way. Only, the short way went straight up a hill.

Bill and Betsy zoom up the hill.










"Let's take this road to the right," I said to Terry, thinking we would meet our friends on the other side of the hill.





So Terry and I take the circuitous route, and meander back and forth, carefully following the trail markers. There was always one more curve to go around, and always those undulating hills, up and down, although not as steep as the first one.
No sign of our friends, though.
Finally they call, and with relief, we meet, kind of in the middle.

Terry walks slightly behind me, to make sure I stay on the trail. The sand is hard to walk in, and I concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other.
There was not much to see anyway, only scruffy low creosote bushes.
I think that's the same mountain in the background that we see from our campsite!

I like going downhill much better. At times Terry held my hand, and I felt more secure. Like holding the hand of my heavenly Father, I thought, so I can stay on the "straight and narrow." It was warm enough to shed my hoodie, and a breeze made the sun bearable.

Three hours later, we were back at the jeep, and congratulated ourselves on having made it. I wouldn't say I actually enjoyed the hike, but I was glad to have walked 8.6 km (5.3 miles).