Destination: Sandy Jeep Road
Starting Location: Chihuahua Valley Road
Today’s Miles: 15.60
Trip Miles: 142.70
Chihuahua Valley Road (5050) to Sandy Jeep Road (4075)
Assent (2116) Decent (3054)
I am not sure where the “herd” of hikers we keep hearing about is as we did not see another hiker all day. We did have a very close encounter with a Western Diamondback rattle snake. As Lucky Liz walked by this 5+ foot snake with eight buttons of rattles sounded the alarm. T-minus immediately backed into me and Liz leapt forward. We tried to get that snake off the trail for 15 minutes and boy was he mad, coiled, and acting defiant. We finally had to get off the trail to get around the serpent. I hope no one was behind us because as we left he was coiled right in the middle of the trail.
I’m not sure how Tom pulled it off, but even after completely miscommunicating our meeting location, Tom deducted where we should likely be given the number of hours we had been walking. He found us in the middle of a very confusing maze of dirt roads. Just when we figured out that we had screwed up and obviously missed the rendezvous, here comes Tom walking up the trail carrying 3 of the juiciest oranges in the world. So our planned 12 mile day morphed into 15 with an 800 foot gain the last few miles. Tom drove us to the Anza RV Park. The shower was hot and the food at the diner down the road was pretty good. Just as we left the diner, the adjacent bar was setting up for karaoke cowboy style. The last thing we heard was George Jones blaring through the machine. Linda and Hank are also here
Destination: Sandy Jeep Road
Starting Location: Chihuahua Valley Road
Today’s Miles: 15.60
Trip Miles: 142.70
Chihuahua Valley Road (5050) to Sandy Jeep Road (4075)
Assent (2116) Decent (3054)
I am not sure where the “herd” of hikers we keep hearing about is as we did not see another hiker all day. We did have a very close encounter with a Western Diamondback rattle snake. As Lucky Liz walked by this 5+ foot snake with eight buttons of rattles sounded the alarm. T-minus immediately backed into me and Liz leapt forward. We tried to get that snake off the trail for 15 minutes and boy was he mad, coiled, and acting defiant. We finally had to get off the trail to get around the serpent. I hope no one was behind us because as we left he was coiled right in the middle of the trail.
I’m not sure how Tom pulled it off, but even after completely miscommunicating our meeting location, Tom deducted where we should likely be given the number of hours we had been walking. He found us in the middle of a very confusing maze of dirt roads. Just when we figured out that we had screwed up and obviously missed the rendezvous, here comes Tom walking up the trail carrying 3 of the juiciest oranges in the world. So our planned 12 mile day morphed into 15 with an 800 foot gain the last few miles. Tom drove us to the Anza RV Park. The shower was hot and the food at the diner down the road was pretty good. Just as we left the diner, the adjacent bar was setting up for karaoke cowboy style. The last thing we heard was George Jones blaring through the machine. Linda and Hank are also here
Robert Francisco 
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