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Mummy's Nose from North Loop Meadow |
Lettie G. offers the blog entry for today. Mike OC also contributed one photo. The hike started from the North Loop Trailhead on Deer Creek Hwy in the Spring Mountains NRA.
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Hanging Out at the North Loop Meadow |
Today's hike up North Loop to Raintree was also a birthday celebration
hike for Paul and Doyle. As we drove up, we noticed that it was windy.
But at the trail-head, the wind was not that bad. Fifteen hikers left
the cars and quickly formed groups based on what speed was comfortable
for them. We agreed to regroup at the meadow. Of
course the lead group got the longest break but this hiker has learned
that breaks make the restart more difficult so I snapped some photos and
kept trudging up to the switchbacks. Shortly, the lead hikers passed me
as we all made our way up the to the bristlecone forest at the top.
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Mummy's Toe from North Loop Trail |
Finally, the downhill trail to Raintree, and now the wind was
refreshing but much stronger. When we arrived at Raintree, the wind was
howling. The lead group was bundled up and trying to find places out of the
wind. It was so windy, we could not hear each other so most of us turned around
and took a quick snack break in the forest out of the wind. What a treat to
find shelter from the wind. Our coordinator, Chris, announced that we would
regroup back at the meadow. Once we dropped down onto the switchbacks, we were
protected from the wind. We leisurely made our way down to the meadow.
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Familiar Faces |
Nearing the meadow we came across these riders. Many of us
have seen the gentleman on this trail before. His horse has distinctive blue
eyes that stand out on its white face. We took our break at the big dead
bristlecone and were now able to remove jackets because the wind was refreshing
again. We headed out once more going down Wild Horse
Ridge. We took a breather as we started down the ridge above Deer Creek. It was now much warmer and
the wind had stopped. Chris showed us a tick on his arm and then shared
his tick story from when he was in the military. Someone noticed a
hidden jug of water in the logs and we saw signs of a campfire.
Hopefully, it is an old campfire and people are adhering to the "no
fire" signs all over the trails. We saw many wild horse droppings but no
horses. But the views along this ridge were great; from Creech Airforce
Base to the Boys camp and beyond to Las Vegas.
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Scrambling Down Off of Wild Horse Ridge |
A welcome breeze began to blow again as we made our descent into Wild Horse Canyon near Split Rock. ~ Lettie G.
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Birthday Celebration for Paul and Doyle |
1 comment:
Chris needs to trim that arm hair up a bit before Bigfoot starts taking picture of him. :D
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