New Computer and More Hikes

 

After a valiant try and many hours of work, Jim was unable to resurrect the old Toshiba so we ended up trading it in at Best Buy, for which they gave us a whopping $36. We now have an Acer Aspire R14 with a touch screen, which we really wanted since we have gotten used to it on the iPad.

In the process of backing up and reinstalling everything on the new computer, Jim realized we lost all of our photos from March to October of this year. So from now on we will try to do a better job of keeping things backed up and we’ll see how that goes.

The weekend turned out to be good for indoor activities, with cold temperatures and off and on drizzle, but on Sunday morning we braved the threat of rain and did a group hike on the BLM land behind the RV park where Mark and Bobbie moved on Saturday. The call of electricity and long, hot showers were just too much for them to resist. Suzanne is now in the campground at Zion NP, so she joined us, too. We started on a fairly level dirt road, but after a couple miles began a very steep climb. I didn’t realize this was Mark and the Boonster’s plan, and in order to convince Suzanne to come I had told her there would only be a few short hills. She will never trust me again!

Suzanne and Jim taking a breather on the steep part.

The goal was to climb all the way up to Gooseberry Mesa, where we had biked last week. The road/trail was rocky and steep, but we had some distracting scenery.

 

Laurelee and Libby making their way up.

 

Views from Gooseberry Mesa.

 

Bobbie, Mark, kB and Coffee Girl seeking shelter from the cold wind at the top in order to eat a snack.

The curvy road is our way out, nearly 4 miles away.

 

It was too cold up top, so we began making our way back down. Jim, Suzanne, Laurelee and Libby weren’t quite there yet, but we convinced them to turn around since it looked like the rain was moving our way, which it did. Luckily it didn’t last too long.

Although the sun was shining on Monday, it was cold and windy and our legs were sore.  A good day to dump our tanks, get water and propane, along with laundry. The Maverick station in nearby LaVerkin has a nice dump, free with gas purchase, and the laundromat in Hurricane is one of the nicer ones we’ve run across. With rain out of the forecast, when we came back we decided to give Debbie and Laurelee more space so we moved farther down the dirt road to Mark and Bobbie’s old spot.

Yesterday we did another group hike with Mark and Bobbie, Laurelee, Debbie, Suzanne and her friend Lynne, and a new addition to our group, John and Ellen, who met Mark through his blog.

Back to the Chinle trail in the Zion Wilderness, one we did last year, an 8 mile hike according to M&B, which turned out to be over 11. This time we knew what was in store and decided to go for it again. A few turned back over 4 miles in to return home to pets, but the rest of us did the long loop.

Time for lunch.

We couldn’t have asked for a better day.

 

 

Coming through Scoggins Wash put us in some compromising positions, right Suzanne?

It was a fun day on the trail. We’ll see if Lynne and John and Ellen join us again!

Tomorrow a hike through the Zion Narrows is being planned. Jim dislikes water so will not be going, and I have yet to decide if I want to brave the cold, wet, dark canyon. We’ll see…..