Washwacking

Before we had the new GPS we had been speculating whether the wash that is dammed is the same wash that we ride through on our windmill ride. We picked today to find out. There is a small weather system moving in, so it was mostly cloudy but that did not deter us.


We started out from the house, walking our windmill horse trail backwards and after 2.5 miles ended up in the wash. There is lots of evidence of drought as dead vegetation has fallen in and there are a number of cave-ins to be climbed. This is a good thing because I doubt that the beautiful, huge honeycomb (above Dan's head) would still be there if the ubiquitous ATVs could get far enough up stream. But, thankfully, it is still there and the bees were huddled due to the lack of sun today.


We got out of the wash temporarily and climbed the bank because it became truly impassable, and I was afraid we had lost "our" wash altogether but the GPS showed we picked it up again later. The going got very rough, but the rocks were amazing. There was one dike of green rock that divided a huge slab of purple slate. Just gorgeous. The picture below does not do it justice.


We have been here long enough now to recognize some of the landmarks and climbed out of the wash thinking that we must be close to the dam, and we were! Dan crossed it; it was dry on both sides, but I did a controlled slide and walked through the dry lake.


It was a long hike, 7.3 miles, and we are both feeling it, but it was, as always, well worth it. And we now know that although people may have ridden their horses through the wash from the dam to the windmill in the past, there is no way we can do that today. Too much brush, too many cave-ins.