Slingin' It
It's getting old. This un-use of my right arm. I must admit that I have relearned how to do many things - brushing my teeth, trying to fix my hair ("trying" is the key work there), writing, and taking pictures. I have relearned them all mostly left-handed, but not nearly as well. I'm getting a lot of reading done. I've decided that I'm not going to take this sitting down.
Kyle and I decided that with the beautiful weather last weekend we would get outside and do some hiking. I can hike with a sling right? No problemo. We were about to walk out the door headed to Lawton and I was only a little worried about all the boulders. Then we remembered. The blasted government shutdown. The Wichitas are a federal wildlife management area. I'm so glad we didn't drive all the way down there.
So, what did we do? We drove to Hinton, OK to Red Rock Canyon instead. I'm pretty sure I'm the only woman, heck, the only human to hike the California Road Trail in a sling. Here's what the guidebook says about the trail:
"2.4 mile circuit, moderate difficulty" (wait, isn't this easy day hikes?), "trail surface: rugged rock and dirt, forested trail
"On this route it is very important to observe the trail markers indicating the CRT and follow the arrows as there are no other marked trails....." (This will become important later)
"Of all the hikes in this guide, this is the most challenging as the trail offers a variety of terrain, including climbing briefly up and down rock surfaces."
So, the trail was beautiful. The sky was clear and bright blue. It was a little early to see much change in the color of leaves but we did glimpse a few yellow leaves and some red on the leaves of the grapes/possum grapes?? I had my fashionable blue mesh sling and was turning my face up basking in the dappled sunlight. We hiked. And we hiked. And we hiked. We ended up with a great view of the canyon. We got all the way around the canyon and it seemed to be a very long "short hike." The trail narrowed and overgrown grasses brushed our legs (yes, I was smart and wore pants....but Kyle...), goatheads covered our shoes and we hiked on. We inclined and declined on the red rock. We came to a spot where we could have jumped down off the canyon - about10 feet (uh sorry, not even on a good day). We kept hiking figuring we'd come to an area to get down sometime. Some spots had moss covered red rock - nothing like skiing down with no way to brace yourself if you fall. After a while, and thoughts that we had hiked way more than the 2.4 miles the trail originally was, we met a couple and their pit bull/basset hound mix. They asked how long the trail was and we asked if we were almost to an area to get off the trail. They said they just got on! (Imagine our excitement) The end of the trail was near. We found it. And found out we had a 1.1 mile walk back to the truck. We definitely got our exercise that day!
In truth, most of our hiking consists of much longer distances with moderate to difficult trails. But in my beautiful mesh sling, we didn't want to push things. Plus, Kyle is still recovering from his broken ankle and torn ligaments so he is not 100% either. It was rejuvenating for both of us to get outside.
Pictures to come......
Kyle and I decided that with the beautiful weather last weekend we would get outside and do some hiking. I can hike with a sling right? No problemo. We were about to walk out the door headed to Lawton and I was only a little worried about all the boulders. Then we remembered. The blasted government shutdown. The Wichitas are a federal wildlife management area. I'm so glad we didn't drive all the way down there.
So, what did we do? We drove to Hinton, OK to Red Rock Canyon instead. I'm pretty sure I'm the only woman, heck, the only human to hike the California Road Trail in a sling. Here's what the guidebook says about the trail:
"On this route it is very important to observe the trail markers indicating the CRT and follow the arrows as there are no other marked trails....." (This will become important later)
"Of all the hikes in this guide, this is the most challenging as the trail offers a variety of terrain, including climbing briefly up and down rock surfaces."
So, the trail was beautiful. The sky was clear and bright blue. It was a little early to see much change in the color of leaves but we did glimpse a few yellow leaves and some red on the leaves of the grapes/possum grapes?? I had my fashionable blue mesh sling and was turning my face up basking in the dappled sunlight. We hiked. And we hiked. And we hiked. We ended up with a great view of the canyon. We got all the way around the canyon and it seemed to be a very long "short hike." The trail narrowed and overgrown grasses brushed our legs (yes, I was smart and wore pants....but Kyle...), goatheads covered our shoes and we hiked on. We inclined and declined on the red rock. We came to a spot where we could have jumped down off the canyon - about10 feet (uh sorry, not even on a good day). We kept hiking figuring we'd come to an area to get down sometime. Some spots had moss covered red rock - nothing like skiing down with no way to brace yourself if you fall. After a while, and thoughts that we had hiked way more than the 2.4 miles the trail originally was, we met a couple and their pit bull/basset hound mix. They asked how long the trail was and we asked if we were almost to an area to get off the trail. They said they just got on! (Imagine our excitement) The end of the trail was near. We found it. And found out we had a 1.1 mile walk back to the truck. We definitely got our exercise that day!
In truth, most of our hiking consists of much longer distances with moderate to difficult trails. But in my beautiful mesh sling, we didn't want to push things. Plus, Kyle is still recovering from his broken ankle and torn ligaments so he is not 100% either. It was rejuvenating for both of us to get outside.
Pictures to come......
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