Went with BESC hiking group to East Fork. Only 6 of us. Art went back looking for a stick to cross first rocks (only non-bridge crossing on trail) and then decided to do his own hike going up the hill west of the East Fork, going through some private property and finding an old cross country ski trail that Mary said was the first Roland Pettitt Trail, put in by Jim Burns and some middle school students. It had to be abandoned because the forest service said it was illegally put in. Times have changed apparently as there are plenty of unauthorized trails in the Jemez Mountains nowadays.
Natalie and I turned it into a flower walk. We saw lots more of the White Prairie Mallow. I wonder why Dorothy said she's mainly found it in the Sangres. We saw Parry's Harebell. I plucked some dogbane to show Natalie. There's still a profusion of flowers in bloom. The new bridge is in which replaces the last of the rickety bridges. They cut the old one off its moorings to put it out of commision.
The hike was only 3.3 miles. Natalie asked if I could drive her back to the senior center so Mary's car would be less crowded. On the way back, we encountered another maniacal semi-truck. I was following a car around one of the blind curves and I heard horn honking. I saw the car ahead of me had stopped so I stopped too and pulled my front end over toward the guardrail and would have moved over more if I had time but around the curve came blasting this god-awful, huge semi-truck that looked like it was going to clip me for sure. Amazingly, I didn't scream - maybe because Natalie was in the car. I've called the state highway transportation department to complain. This is going to go on until August 1 according to flashing warning signs that say watch out for heavy truck traffic. Someone's going to get hurt. The pumice trucks were never this reckless.
I finished my 4 miles on the Quemazon Nature Trail. Not a whole lot of shade since Cerro Grande but pretty nevertheless.
Next Friday's hike, spouse's Friday off, will be a hike around Cerro la Jara. Art wants to go to Cerros del Abrigo but Mary chose la Jara because that was the majority opinion. Most of the hikers don't want to do the 7 mile Cerros del Abrigo hike. I wouldn't mind but spouse and I will stick with the main group. We'd never see Art anyway!
I had time this afternoon to do upper body weight work, a smidgeon of yoga, and leg work which made me very happy!