So this story is really great.
We packed up camp and decided to head back down the canyon and take this hike we saw on our drive up. The hike was posted as a 1-mile hike each way, couldn't be that bad, right? Ha. Well, it wasn't 1-mile each way, it was more like 2-miles each way, and steep, steep, steep. I slipped so many times on my way down. At that moment, I was concentrating so hard on not tumbling the whole way down the mountain, I didn't really think about what our return journey would be like.
We reached the bottom and played around there for a bit. Morgan fly fished, Jonathan loved playing in the water and was soon completely drenched, and I had fun walking up and down the river in that cool water.
As we sat down to wring out our socks, these pesky flies started buzzing around our heads. Then they became kamikazi flies. They started dive bombing for our mouths, eyes, noses, and ears. I thought I was going to go mad. Jonathan was laughing at us as we tried to swat the flies away. One actually made it in Morgan's mouth and one made it up my nose. They were insane!
So we started heading back up the hill. I had Jonathan to begin with, on the portion of the hike that was actually the steepest, and soon had to hand him off to Morgan. About half way up, we were both so thirsty, we could barely stand it, not to mention completely out of breath. This was the steepest hike I have ever been on.
We were at almost 8,000 feet elevation, accidently only brought 1 water bottle to share, and were seriously not anticipating to see lightening clouds coming at us.
Being as tired as we were, we tried so hard to pick up the pace. After 5 minutes our pace was back to "slow" and we were both dying for more water.
Don't you worry, though. We made it to the top and had a good laugh once we had downed some cold water.
It was a beautiful hike, just a bit more difficult than we were prepared for. I think we might try it again sometime, though. Maybe after we have lived here in Silver City at this higher elevation for a while. Oh, and we will be prepared with a lot more water!
