The day before yesterday Bo and I went on the biggest solo hike yet. We left around 1 or 2 and got back after 7. We ended up at Brimstone which will mean absolutely nothing to you unless you've been here. We walked up fencerows where I could see the mountains across the valley, sage under my feet, and land swooping out before my in all directions. The curving draws are the easiest to walk in, but I soon learned they're mesquito infested places of slow torture and before long we left the soft, grassy trail in favor of the scratchy sage 30 yards up to get away from them. The 1st picture shows where we came up out of the valley. There is a wide, wide, curving, high table with trees in the draw on the left, and then a draw on the right. We were on initially on top of the flat spot (where you can see it begins far off in the distance). Then we dropped down into the right draw where the mesquitoes took their bloody toll.
The 2nd picture shows the cabin in the little draw at the beginnings of Horse Creek. Hours down the creek the draw opens into the lake area. We 'found' and old cabin in a grassy swale at the beginning of Horse Creek. It was swarming with mesquitoes! Anyone living there would've been driven out of their mind! By the time we began the steep ascent up out of there my shoes were in my pack to relieve a growing blister.
The 3rd picture shows the gateway at the bottom of Horse Creek. Just the sight of that little valley curving its way into the hills has always made me want see it...just like a candybar wrapper makes me want to eat what's inside. That picture I took last night...storm light, isn't it cool! I didn't know there was a cabin up in there!
The hike was a great experience. I'd love to communicate it so that you could share the same joy, but the power of my pen isn't quite up to par. Just think soaring vistas of backlit buttery yellow flowers, green meadows, shimmering water miles below, a grassy old road bed curving around a hill high above a creek, and land that requires good lungs and strong muscles to see!
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