Travel Blog

Did I say I'd write last Monday? I meant this Monday. Anyway, last week on our days off, we went on a 9-mile hike around Phelp's Lake. The hike would have been shorter, but I had the choice of climbing back up a mountain after we had already climbed down it, or going the long way down and around the lake, through the Rockefeller preserve, taking my life in my hands by walking on a narrow, wildlife/tourist jammed road, and then back to the truck. I chose the latter because I didn't want to climb up a mountain. It was a really nice hike, though, and even though we're not in shape, we did really well.

The first thing we saw was a lone deer leading our way up to the Death Canyon trailhead (nice name, huh?).

The next thing we saw was an interesting tree decoration.

We patted our can of bear spray for good luck, and continued on. Since this year has been a bit damp because of the snowmelt, the trails are a bit more interesting. At one point, we had to take a log walk over some runoff. As my family can attest, when I get near water, I usually end up getting wet. This was no exception. Phil crossed over like a little fawn prancing in a meadow. I took a couple steps, and did a Humpty Dumpty into the water. Plus I scraped my hand on the damn log. Oh well. I had my magic hiking socks on, so my feet didn't feel wet, even though they were. And my blister the next day wasn't so bad.

The flowers are finally starting to think it's spring, so we got to enjoy some wonderful fields of color. Mostly yellow.

Phil did stop to smell them.

And we were waist deep in some interesting foliage too.

We didn't smell those; however, the scent of skunk was prevalent throughout the hike. I don't know if it was a real skunk, or just some skunky plants.

And did I mention the interesting trails because of the snow melt?

I made it across this one without falling, so that was a big plus. I think I would have had some Yellowstone bog flashbacks. After Phil made it across this, he felt very manly and needed to test his strength.

I'm pretty sure I saw it move a little bit.

The hike we were doing was called the Phelp's Lake hike, and here is its namesake from the top.

We hiked down to the lake shore, and met up with Quackers here.

He was having fun doing some fishing or something. And he was yelling at us to get away from him, so we kept moving.

The hike gave us plenty of time for some quiet reflection.

Plus it got us closer to nature, in all its forms.

And that was about it for that excursion. We took this hike the day before the guy had the fatal bear encounter in Yellowstone. We always hike with our bear spray, but it still gives us pause. This year is just a big one for bear sightings, so before we do another long hike, we're going to pick up another cannister of spray so we each have one. Phil just ditches me too often for him to be the only one with the spray.

These days off, we're going to probably go to Oxbow Bend with our little kayak and splash around a bit. I'm not going to promise I will tell you all about it next Monday because next Monday is laundry day and we get up at 6:30 a.m. to get to the laundromat before the crowds get there. And since the library where the nice internet lives doesn't open until 10:00 a.m., we usually go home in between cleaning our clothes and going to the library. And usually once I get home, I don't want to leave again. So to be safe, I probably will be an every-two-week blogger. So I hope ya'll check back in a couple of Mondays. I'll be here.