November 18, 2009

We've been writing our story as we go but, really, we've also been living it. I can't help but think that spending our winters down here has been such a blessing. We just love what we're able to do here; and we're not alone - we hear similar sentiments from many of our friends here and from the new people we meet each day. I am sure there are better and nobler achievements we can aspire to, but for us at this time, this pause on the circle of life seems to fit just right.

Whew, where did that come from? Now, getting back to normal: I set the alarm last night to be sure I would be up in time to get ready for our Wednesday hike. It's a good thing I did because I didn't sleep well and I'm sure I would have slept late otherwise. We had a typical breakfast of cereal after which I dropped over to the activities building patio area to pick up a cup of coffee. There are a number of men from around the park that get together every weekday morning to discuss the latest news and socialize a bit and they always make pots of coffee for anybody that drops by. Although I've sat in a few times I'm not exactly a regular. But, I do like to get my morning coffee fix.

There was a good turnout for the hike, a moderate climb of about 600 feet over 1.4 miles. It is called the Hieroglyphic Trail and takes us to a nice area of boulders, streams and ponds in a canyon north of the Gold Canyon Subdivision. There are hieroglyphics on the rocks that date back a couple of hundred years. The pond this year was pretty empty as they haven't had much rain and the water table is quite low. There was another group from another park there ahead of us. I think I heard them say their group was about 23 people. This is typical of many of our hikes - that we run across other large groups making the same trip. It seems that the wilderness isn't really that big a place after all.

We headed left of this range
The rock formation here - in the middle of Gold Canyon Subdivision, is called Dinosaur Mtn.

taking a breather and looking at what's ahead

This was a fairly short hike and we were back at the park by 11:30 which was great as we were expecting a high of 78 degrees F today and it's always preferable to be out when it's a bit cooler.

After lunch Lise wanted to go to the library to get more reading material so we did that, picked up a coffee, and spent a quiet afternoon reading. Lise made a turkey meat loaf in the toaster-oven. It came out just fine and with some peas, corn and potatoes made a real nice dinner, with a nice glass of white wine, of course. We'll probably spend the rest of the evening watching TV. All I can say is: "It's all good!"