A brief respite

As I walked to my car after work yesterday, I marveled at the fact that it didn't feel like the skin on my face was being set on fire. It was only about 105 when I got home. I grabbed my backpack and camera and headed for Bulldog Canyon. It was only about 101 when I got out of the truck. Since it was so cool, I headed uphill.

Every time I've walked by this, I've thought about climbing it. Finally did it.

I headed up a slope that I've looked at many times, wondering if it would be possible to walk up it. Sometimes it looked easy and sometimes it looked impossible. I guess it's a little of both.

The view from where I stopped climbing.

It was easy because I was always able to find paths that were not extremely steep. I realized that it could be difficult getting back down if I wasn't able to retrace all those little twists and turns. I did in fact make a major wrong turn on the way down and had to double back a little ways when I got to a dead end (in the form of a 20 foot drop).

That's Four Peaks back there.

I stopped before I got to the top for several reasons. First, I am out of shape. Second, I was unfamiliar with that area. Third, it was getting close to sunset. Being in an unfamiliar area when you are tired and it's dark is one step away from disaster, so I didn't push things by going the last few feet to the top. Also, as anyone who has done any climbing at all knows, when it looks like you are close to the top, you aren't. I got back to the truck well before sunset. It was back to being toasty outside today. Glad I went for a hike while I could. Click below to see all of the pictures.

2011_09_06