Sunday February 10, 2008

Another day, another hike. Today we hiked the Lost Mine Trail - 5 miles and 1100 feet elevation change. The photos come from our hike today - the views were awesome. Legend has it that there was a hidden silver mines in the hills, but there is no evidence that this could be so. The good thing is that the trail out was uphill and the way back was down - so much easier! The weather was also more cooperative - slightly cloudy and a wonderful breeze. We were amazed to see a roadrunner near the top of the trail - somehow I thought they were just in the lower desert regions - obviously this is not so. We also saw several deer - two of them were fawns - very cute. We had a lovely chat at the top with a couple from Atlanta who have been gone since August. They spent a month in Death Valley and are just wandering around until they have to be home in March. Our calves are really getting toned with all the up and down hiking. We came back to camp in mid afternoon and read for awhile before dinner. We are now sitting on the patio and watching the sunset - a little different tonight as there are more clouds. They say there is a chance of rain tonight - if it rains, it will be the first time in the park. The folks that we met on the trail yesterday just came up on the patio - they are going in to dinner at the lodge behind us. We also saw our tent neighbor from this campground - he is treating himself to dinner here also. He has been gone all day and said he went into Presidio to grocery shop, wash his car, and do laundry. Here, that kind of thing takes all day as it is at least 2 hours to the nearest reasonable sized town and then 2 hours back. There are more tent campers in this park - because of the windy switch-back road to get here, the larger campers are not allowed - nor could they manage to get around the sharp curves - so we have tenters and small caravans.