piedra falls - thursday, 6/22/06

even after several days, i was still operating on eastern time, and when the blasted geese began to honk in the morning at dawn, i was there! :) but i didn't mind. i was in a cool place with my closest friends...and i guess some of them could be geese. i drifted back to sleep off and on, and got up and actually ate breakfast, which i had been boycotting most of the trip. granola cereal this morning.

today's adventure was to be piedra falls, which wasn't all that bad a climb up according to the billy goat barats! : ) i was a bit worried that my fatitude would keep me from making this climb. it had been a long time since i had done any hiking, and i was really, really apprehensive about it. would i embarrass myself huffing and puffing and rolling down a hill?

the drive there was a hoot. we were pretty soon off of paved roads, with chuck whipping the car all over the road like it was an off road vehicle and linda doing the navigating. we got confused at one point and ended up backtracking to a store that was there. pretty wild. we found out we were going in the right direction, but just hadn't gone far enough. pam and i were in the back seat trying not to laugh as linda and chuck bantered back and forth over where to go, typical male/female stuff. we got there...there was never a doubt.

when i first started out hiking, i got a little winded, but then again, we were at 8600 feet and i am old! chuck, being the kind soul he is, stayed behind me and i guess he could here me sucking wind out of the canyon because he asked me a couple of time is if was ok. surprisingly, once i got going, i was!

the falls were really pretty, and the water very cold! we took a lot of pictures, some of the best ones of the trip. i took one of linda sitting up on top of a rock by herself, and it seemed just perfect to me...it really captured her. chuck began the "chuck flexes his muscles" series of photos there as well!

pam and i both got down into the water looking for rocks. it was pretty cold, but i liked it. it was really relaxing! while we were hanging around taking pictures, chuck struck up a conversation with a group of people who were also there. it turns out that they were from richmond, and lived over in woodlake, where mary beth, my college roomie, lives. upon further questioning, i found out that not only did they know mary beth, but david (mb's hubby) had taught religious ed to their child and they all go to the same church! how freaky is that? i had a picture taken with the woman, terry, and tried to call mb a couple of times to tell her, but wasn't able to get her at the time!

on the way coming and going to the falls we saw cowboys working cattle on the hillside. we also saw a dead cow out there. it was the first time i had ever seen working cowboys. we tried to get pictures, but we weren't able to get them before we had flown past them.