17 miles of hiking • 4000' elevation gain •
Absolutely delightful day out of the doom and gloom of the wet, west side. Blissful blue skies and temps in the mid-60s led us to linger much of the day, while just meandering all about the syncline. Mountainkat and I started the day by wandering up alongside Coyote Wall; the clouds lifted as we climbed. Cut east from the top, and ran into what (to me was) a brand new vineyard, which was fenced so we'd obviously ran off the public land at that point. A bit of off-trailing it found us at the delightful "are you bringing us wine and cheese?" no trespassing sign, from which we were able to get quickly back on course again.
Took the highline across until just before the powerlines, where we cut down a lovely trail alongside another cliffy section overlooking the vision pits and Rowland Lake. The lighting was superb for capturing the extent of native architecting that'd occurred millenia ago below us. From here, we came out down near the Catherine Creek trailhead.
Decided to lunch on top of Tracy Hill, so we headed up from there. Got a bit distracted checking out the rock arch, from both below and then above, before heading all the way up the hill. Found a wonderful view spot to lunch at, and by this time the sun and food was urging a leisurely nap. It was just that nice out! But, it was not to be.
Around 2:30 or so, it seemed time to consider heading back down, and then across the lower reaches towards the Labyrinth. About that time, a beautiful full moon was rising to our east, as the sun set in the west. We ended up making it back to our trailhead without artificial light.
The kind of day one can normally only dream of in winter. :-)
