Great day for a hike on a new trail. 6.8 miles of God's creation. Beautiful, sunny nature all around! What more could a person ask for? The trail was rated moderate. Just right for us. The reviews said the first little bit was uphill but then rolling hills up and down. We are ready.
I am pretty sure Super Women rated the trail and as for the little bit of uphill in the beginning, well let's just say that being a mountain goat would have been tremendously helpful. The "little bit" turned out to be about 3/4 of a mile. Climbing over rocks and tree roots and more. It was really steep.
This picture was taken before we even saw the climb. We had no idea what was next. But being the troupers we are we made it up that steep incline. NO WHITE FLAGS for us. I did mention a few times that the top had to be just around the next curve. It just had to be.
The view was beautiful the whole way.
Climbing, climbing, climbing!
Most of the hike was done single file. We met a nice couple that was going the opposite way on the trail. They gave us some tips about where to make turns as we got farther along. A few other tips too.
What now?
It looks like we climbed over the log but actually we were able to go around it.
The Little Spokane River. The steep uphill portion of the hike was repeated several times during this adventure. We had some pretty drastic downhill hiking going on too. I don't' really recall any rolling hills. Once in a while it was flat but not often. It also started to heat up.
A snake!!!!!
The wildflowers were so beautiful.
We were hot, we were tired but we were still having fun. It was a great challenge. It always feels good to finish something that is challenging. One of the tips that the hikers we saw on the trail gave us was about this spot. There is a pond under all of this. As we began to walk along the trail by the pond their warning came to my mind! Mosquitos, lots of them. We were attacked by a swarm of mosquitos. Peggy had bug spray and we shouted to her to get out her bug spray. I think the number of mosquito bites you got had a direct correlation to when it was your turn to use the bug spray. I was last. I kept spinning around hoping that would help keep those things off me. I think it did a bit. Would have been wise to get the bug spray out as soon and our friendly hikers told us about the mosquitos.
Out and back was supposed to be 6.8 miles. We are now at 4 miles which means out and back would be 8 miles. We weren't to the end of the trail yet. This area was different and still beautiful although I think our mindset at this point was, "Are we there yet?"
We made it. One slight wrong turn that was very minor. We sat down and pondered whether or not to take the same trail back to the car. We had some water and snacks and pretty much decided we are not doing all those hills again. Now we had to find the Indian Painted Rock area. It was over the river and around the curve.
We looked at the closest painted rock. We decided to walk on the road to get back to the car. There would still be uphill but no rocks, loose rocks, tree roots or any other obstacles to deal with. I got my GPS out and we started walking. Sheila said she thought we were going the wrong way. I insisted this is what the GPS says so off we went. Hot really hot walking uphill and on the asphalt. I am not sure how far we went when we decided to sit in a shady spot and guess what!!! The nice people we talked to along the way came by in their car. They also said we were going the wrong way and we would get where we wanted to go but it was the long, long way. They offered to give us a ride. We must have looked pretty wiped out. They couldn't take all of us so Sheila and Peggy got in the strangers car and the strangers dropped them off at my car.
In the mean time Bonnie and I kept on hiking the same way UNTIL the GPS re-routed us and turned us around! Really! We headed back to the Indian Painted Rocks area and decided to wait for Sheila and Peggy. We had walked/hiked enough. We sat down and waited for the car. I called and sent a text to Sheila and Peggy to tell them where we were waiting and we saw my car go driving by. We did connect and were so relieved to be in an air-conditioned car! Hard but good. That's how I would describe all of this. Great to spend time with good friends.
I got in the drivers seat and really I think this was the icing on the cake of the day. We got a really good laugh. I am driving along heading home IN MY CAR (IN being the key word) and wanted to turn at St. George's, where my car was when we started, to pick it up. I needed to pick my car up. I couldn't just leave it there. I was sitting in my car, driving it and I thought I had to go pick the car up. Maybe it was the heat? I think I will just end with that.
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