The thing I didn’t mention in my previous post is that while we were hiking I suddenly realized I’d lost my hat. Kevin bought the hats before we went hiking in Wales and they have flaps and are very nice and I was very sad that I’d somehow lost it. It happened because I took it off and tucked it into my pack strapped around my waist, and hadn’t paid enough attention to the hat and it was gone.
As I’m sure I’ve written about over and over, my basic M.O. is to lose, drop and break things. So it wasn’t a huge surprise that I’d lost the hat, but still, I was disappointed.
I hoped that somebody would turn it in and kept going to the front desk and asking, but no luck. When I woke up the next morning, here’s the video that Kevin sent me.
He went for an early morning hike and found my hat! Because he’s wonderful. In addition to finding my hat, he also bought a delicious giant muffin at the coffee shop that we enjoyed before heading out.
This morning we drove to the end of the park road to hike Illinois Canyon. We’d been there a long time ago and remembered that it’d been covered in bluebells.
When we pulled into the parking lot we were surprised that it was completely full, and found the last spot in the adjacent lot. This was odd because there weren’t that many hikers on the other trails, and they were much more popular than the more remote ones. But then we started seeing a lot of grey-haired hikers exiting the trail and realized it must be some hiking club. They all looked older than us and one guy had a metal leg. Good for them. I hope to be able to hike til, well, til the end.
Anyway, the trail had almost no people on it and it was lovely although bluebell-free. We did have to scramble over s few limbs which were lying over some little streams and I wondered how the guy with the metal leg had done that, but he must be very proficient.
When we got to the canyon there was a trickle of water.
After we walked out we decided to take the trail over to a couple of other canyons where we’d been before and then continued on. We were then on uncharted territory and it was very steep, and the only place, I believe, that was up high but we could also see the river below. At this point we’d climbed way up and then down and I was a little nervous about the return trip.
There were no other hikers, but then we saw a group of three or four young men, sashaying down the trail with clouds of pot smoke following them. I can’t imagine clamboring around on this trail under the influence of anything. We finally got to an overlook and they went off. I was happy to turn around and going back wasn’t as bad as I’d thought it’d be.
It was a wonderful trip and I’m looking forward to more of them in the future.
Meanwhile, it’s the countdown to Christmas but I just finished my huge and incredibly time-consuming job of making a bunch of different calendars . This year I made more than I ever have and it was incredibly rewarding to hit “order now.” Whew.
I’ve somehow managed to put up most of the decorations, with maybe only an hour more to do. So right now I’m feeling a little relaxed which is a refreshing feeling since I’ve been overly-stressed about things for the last week or so
Plus, Mom and I are headed to NYC on Tuesday for a quick trip. A few months ago I read that my all-time favorite musical, “Some Like it Hot,” which Randy and I saw when were were in NY last January, is closing at the end of the year. I was shocked and disappointed that it will be closing after only a little over a year. I then got the idea that I had to see it again, so I booked us a trip.
I have a little packing to do, as a matter of fact, but it’s all good.
Ok then,
Mrs. Busy Hughes.