Hump Day at the Gulch

[christopher575]

Again today it made more sense to head out in the afternoon for my walk, though I did step out for a bit to grab a couple of things at the grocery store this morning. And I think I saw a coyote run across the street near our house on the way back. The spot where he was is right by a shortcut that goes up to the next street, which in turn is across from another that heads up to the park and a huge greenbelt. So even though we're only a couple of blocks from the main road, we also get to see deer and coyotes sometimes. Originally I thought I might just do my same dark morning route, but I realized that was dumb because it follows the tracks, and those actually get used in the afternoon. So I parked up by the houses on the West side and walked in.



The mud wasn't too bad at all. If anything was an issue, it was the fallen leaves. They make it hard to see what you're about to step on. I had my poles with me, so I didn't stop for many photos. But of course I had to get one of this. Hi suxdonut!



I'm pretty sure this bridge is new, and I bet it's over a spot that would have been very muddy otherwise. A guy walked down toward it just after I took the photo, and he agreed that it's got to be new.



Speaking of which, there were a lot of people. I saw him another time, then when I hiked down to the access road I saw three people walking two dogs, plus another guy when I got back up to the top. And two guys on bikes I saw two times each. Very different from my normal experience there.

It's not a trip on the Rusty Car trail without a photo of the rusty car.




5.3 miles in 2 hours, 12,485 steps, 253ft gain

Pretty good walk, but I had a bit of a frustrating time in the North end. I haven't been spending as much time there so I took a lot of wrong turns. At least I didn't accidentally delete the video of the drive home!

Comments

[kazzy-cee.livejournal.com]

I imagine the poles help when it slippery?

Amazing mushrooms!!

[christopher575.livejournal.com]

They help so much. It's really nice to have something to hold onto, plus they're really great sensory tools. You can use them to check how deep mud and water are, and if a place you want to step is solid or soft. I love them.