
Oh, my heck! It's been two weeks since my last hike? No wonder I'm so tired!
This week, like last week, was full of little events that seemed to conspire to keep me out of the mountains. Actually, the nasty heat was no small part of that--If the weather was nicer, I probably would have gone on at least an evening hike in there somewhere.

But even if it was going to get warmer, I felt I just *had* to get some hiking in today. Woke up naturally around 6am, did a few chores around the house, and left by a few minutes after 7am. My car was parked in the Eaton Canyon Nature Center and I was heading out on the trail by 7:32am (according to my phone).
I'm not sure when the last time was that I was out on this trail so early in the day. I made the pleasant "discovery" that, in the morning, a fairly large chunk of the trail is shaded. Between the cooler, high-60s temperature of the morning and the shaded sections, this hike was pretty comfortable. I'm still glad I was carrying a 1/2 liter of water, but I'm sure I would have survived fine without it.


Despite my many times up the trail, I have not paid much attention to how long it takes to get up. Today, I did. I took the steep "shortcut" trail from the Eaton Canyon Trail up to the toll road, and reached the toll road almost exactly 30 minutes after leaving my car. About twenty minutes later, I passed the "You've walked two miles, and have .7 miles to go to Henninger Flats" sign. I still don't know if it's supposed to be two miles from the visitor center or from the bridge, or whether it's by the shortcut, or the long way.

I thought it usually took me longer to get up there. I didn't stop for many pictures this time, so that probably helped. Also, I didn't stay up at the "top" very long, either. I needed to get home by 10:30am at the very latest. Turns out I got back to my car by a few minutes after 9:30am, and was back home before 10am.



No comments:
Post a Comment