CANYON ADVENTURE

From our south field, looking south, you can see a kind of road on the opposite side of the canyon. I plotted this road on a map placing waypoints along it so I could find it with the idea of making a trip down in the canyon. However, where the map shows it joining a main road there is nothing but a field. This morning I decided to solve the mystery by hiking down to it from where the picture was taken. I purposely picked a day when it wasn't quite so hot and Nellie was able to find a little water in the bottom to cool off. It took about two hours of rough hiking through star thistle and brushy draws before I finally hit the road east of the area in the picture and near the bottom but before it crosses over to the other side of the canyon. The recent fire crews had opened the old road up with a cat so it was pretty nice once I got to it. I followed it out to the main road going up the canyon to the northeast. The reason I couldn’t find it from the other end was that it ended at the edge of a field about a ¼ mile from the main road. Then I had a 2 1/2 mile hike back to the house but at least it was on a road and if not flat (nothing in this country is) at least reasonably smooth. Now that I can find the starting point from the road end my next adventure will be to make a trip on the 4 wheeler all the way down and up the other side doing some exploring. According to the map it meanders for quite a ways with several forks.

I got a good view of where the fire had burned by taking a little side trip on the way out. I also ran across a couple of the fire fighters and they said there were only a few smoldering stumps still posing a possible problem. I’ll wait till that’s all cleared up before my next foray down there.