Castle Rock hike and more

These posts are not necessarily in chronological order . . .  for one reason or other.  And, as is often the case, I am behind the times.  This hike took place several months ago in the fall.

This is Castle Rock from the parking area.  We went to the top.

Bob drove me and Moki out to Castle Rock.  We parked and found a corral of horses on the path to the hike.  That was good right there!  You can see Castle Rock from the highway when you're driving by.  Up.  Far up.  So, it was an all uphill hike.  Bob had said that most of it was mellow except for the last quarter mile.  After we had hiked up and up and more up, he said, "I didn't remember it this steep before."  Yeah, well, famous last words!

We finally made it to the "last quarter mile" and it did get really steep then.  Bob suggested that I leash Moki so he wouldn't go off the edge.  I did as I was told.  (That's a first!!)  But, although there was a HUGE dropoff, we weren't that close, so I unleashed him.  Farther up the trail, when the dropoff was a lot closer, I turned around to see Moki "scooching" toward the edge.  He had his belly pressed to the ground and was scooching up to look over the edge.  It was the cutest thing I had ever seen.  So, he was aware enough of the danger to watch himself . . . that was cool.

View of "Needles" from around the top.

We got to the top and stopped and had a snack.  The views up here were spectacular.   Wow.  Then, we wound our way back down the trail, first taking a slight detour to avoid the steep area.  The hike, although a little on the tough side, was really awesome.

That brings us to today!  It's now December 21st (and the poleshift didn't happen like I hoped), and I met Bob at our regular hiking spot to go snowshoeing.  Well, I was snowshoeing and he was skiing.  And since he was skiing, I had to really push to keep up with him.  He said I didn't have to, but what's the use of going together if we can't talk.  So, I pushed.  I didn't want to go that way since it was my first day on snowshoes this season, but Bob said that the other way had too many rocks for his skis.  So, I relented.

View from the top of Castle Rock.  You can see the road kind of
centered and Electra Lake on the left.  The colors are awesome!

After the first big snow, the gate closes and we have to park farther away from the beginning of the hike.  Nine tenths of a mile farther to be exact.  So, by the time we got to the trail head, I was already tired.  I whined, Bob made fun of me, and we went on . . . uphill.  After about five minutes, I knew I was done.  Bob was ahead of me, so I called to him and said to wait for me at the top of the hill.  From my perspective, the top of the hill looked about ten feet from where he was.  But, he disappeared off what looked like the top, and I trudged on.  After several more places that looked like they were the top of the hill, it finally arrived.  I dragged myself up to Bob, told him I was done, and proceeded to fall down into the snow, exhausted.  It took several minutes to get the energy to get myself up . . . the cold snow seeping into my clothes helped get me up!  Then, as we were still talking and he was chiding me for being such a wimp (remember that he is 78 years old!), I had to lean against a tree because I didn't have the energy to just stand there.

He went on and I returned, barely, to the car.  I was so done . . . I was exhausted.  I knew it would be too much for me and I was right.  Or . . . did my "knowing" it would be too much make it so?  We'll never know!

Happy Holidays, everyone.  Love from me and Moki.