I parked at the Bayo Canyon Trailhead and walked through the pedestrian tunnel under San Ildefonso Road to start walking on the Dot Grant Trail toward Guaje Pines Cemetery. Dick had marked the route with red, plastic flagging at crucial points so hikers could find their way back up to his house on Chamisa Street, Barranca Mesa.
The Dot Grant Trail turned into the Upper Rendija Trail and soon I saw the red flagging on the side trail that led up to Dick and Judy's home. There are beautiful views toward Pajarito Mountain on this shelf below Barranca Mesa.
I waited a little bit for the group but no one showed up so I wondered if I had missed them somehow. Everyone else started from Dick and Judy's home but I wanted to skip the aprés hike birthday party. (It turned out that they had started late while waiting for Barbara to arrive.)
I decided to continue on the Upper Rendija Trail, descend into Rendija Canyon and wait for the group as they emerged from the Rendija Narrows. I saw Dick first and he jokingly said there were 50 hikers behind him. I never really counted but 50 was too high by about 30.
I showed the sink-hole, the one that Tom had shown the LL group, to the hikers who hadn't ran ahead. Judy says it's a well, possibly from the homestead era. Tom had said it just showed up once after a rain. Who knows! I took off a few of the logs that cover the deep hole so people could look in. Someone asked how deep it was and I guess-timated 12'. (Grandson almost fell in a few weeks back. Maybe he wanted to empirically test the depth!)
We continued down canyon and then climbed out of Rendija Canyon on the Pajarito Trail as gunshots from the shooting range seranaded us. We crossed Rendija Canyon Road (FR 57) and then went up to Barranca Mesa on the homestead era Romero Road, also called Barranca Crossing. We crossed Barranca Road and continued on the Barranca Crossing Trail down to the North Bayo Bench Trail.
On the way down, Marge pointed out a house that has a toy train in the backyard. She called it the U.F. and I.W. - Under Foot and In the Way. She told us that name came from when the people originally kept it indoors. It was loved by their two boys. Marge, a music teacher, once used it to effectively teach special ed kids some railroad songs. They weren't much motivated to learn until after they had a lemonade party at U.F. and I.W. and got to ride the train - it's that big!
The group ambled over to the North Bayo Bench Overlook for lunch but found it too sunny. They split up into two groups, each eating at a separate, shady spot. Kathy walked behind the group the entire hike and ate her lunch by herself under a tree. It's nothing personal - sometimes she feels like company and sometimes she doesn't.
Me, I continued down into Bayo Canyon, as per the original plan set forth for the Friskies, and walked up the other side on the Bayo Canyon Trail.
On the way back, I saw some odd splotches of blood in the dirt that still had a reddish tinge.
My GPS says I walked 7 miles. It was hot on the way back - still no rain.
It's funny how sometimes I can feel lonelier after one of these group hikes than hiking by myself. Part is my own fault because if I have a choice, I'll walk briskly even if I would enjoy hanging behind to talk with a slower hiker; although, I did talk with Marge who's slower than me and I enjoyed talking with her. The group is so large, though, that it's impossible to connect with everyone even if I wanted to!! (I wish I hadn't drawn a blank on Paul's name or at least that I kept my mouth shut about it!)
House painter did a lot of caulking today. I'll go around to look at it when the sun goes down. It's the time of day when the afternoon sun pours light and heat into the west side of the house. It's now 88 degrees and I have a large box fan blowing on me as I sit here typing.