I awoke Thursday morning to the sound of thunder followed by rain pouring down. I’m from Arizona, which means I don’t hike in the rain. Instead of getting up shortly after the sun, my wonderful wife/alarm clock will, no doubt, let me sleep in.
Didn’t happen.
Dianne checked her Accu-weather app, found that the rain was scheduled to stop soon and it would then be sunny. No extra forty-winks for me. We were going hiking.
Our plan was to hike the Dark Canyon Trail, which follows Anthracite Creek into the mountains. We would go for 4½ miles, turn around and then retrace our steps back to our car at the trailhead near the Erickson Springs Campground.
As my wonderful wife predicted, the rain stopped. We drove to the trailhead and much to my surprise, found that the trail was not muddy.
The scenery was spectacular.
Our route took us into the Raggeds Wilderness Area, which I’d never ventured into before.
Along the trail, we passed a variety of wildflowers in bloom…
…and ripe berries ready to feed a hungry bear.
Of course, we forgot to pack our bear spray.
Fortunately, we never spotted any berry-eating bruins on this hike.
Nine miles after we started, we were in the car and heading back to Kebler Corner for beers on the deck of our cabin.
Once again, our always diligent neighbors greeted our safe return.
