Forest Reopens Today

I didn't fall off of the earth.  Just haven't taken the time to work on the blog.

I have been in Ruidoso for over a month now and have been busy everyday.  I will catch you up but will start with today and go backwards hopefully.

Today the forest reopened after 70 days of being closed because of dryness and fires.  I don't think they should have opened yet because we have had less than a 1/2 inch in a month.  Maybe they had more on the mountain.
Anyway we had a good time today and it did rain on us as we headed back to the car.

It was a nice cool day for a hike along the Crest Trail starting at Monjeau Lookout.  Dan and Sharon Allen went with us.

We met Sharon last year playing pickleball.  She was a teacher and basketball coach.  She is nearly 6' tall and played basketball at Baylor.  She retired last year.  They live in Frisco, TX.  Dan sales insurance and is still working, when he wants to and needs to.  We play Rummikub with them too.

 As we got out of Dan's car we spotted a herd of about twenty elk on the mountain side.

We walked nearly 2 miles along the trail that was along the rim of the mountain. Great views!  A good starter trail with a little up and down.  Took lots of pictures along the way.

 We thought we would see lots of wildlife because it had been so long with no one on the trails.  But we didn't, just a few horny toads & the elk.

Hiked up to about 9300 ft. elevation and had lunch.

 

Sharon was posing for a facebook picture

As we ate lunch we could see the clouds were building and thought we could make it back to the car before the downpour.  We were hoping anyway. Dan assured us it wouldn't rain until the afternoon.

 

Dan was in the lead and Don brought up the rear.

 

We didn't quite make it. It started a nice slow rain.  Needless to say we made it back to the car faster than going out. 

Great day hiking, did some grocery shopping for a party tomorrow night, nice long nap, & a weigh in at Weight Watchers (gained .6 lbs).  Getting ready for garage sales in the morning.

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