Hiking in the Desert

Day 291 -   it’s the beginning of the rainy season and there were heavy rains on 2/3 of our country, so for today’s hiking trip we decided to go south to the desert, the only place we could be sure the weather will be nice. It’s about 3 ½ hours drive from the city where I live and in near the little town where my parents live, so I decided to go for the whole weekend, spend the night at my parent’s and go today for the hike. My daughter stayed with my parents and I went on the hiking trip. It was absolutely amazing. It is a very steep hike up the mountain about 1800 feet vertical climb and the view at the top was breath taking. It was not only our group and some of the other people were not in a good enough shape for such a climb and needed a lot of help, but nothing could take away from the day. We hiked up the mountain we hiked down later in a different direction and a much more challenging slope and we hike the dry river bed. And it was so much fun. We are hiking together now for a long time and we are really good friends by now, so we make jokes all the time and it is just such a fun atmosphere. We all had great time. by the time we finished our hike the sun was almost down and it is so interesting to see how the very warm day turns in no time into a very chilly evening, just as the sun gowns down. It was so cold, we didn’t even want to sit outside and eat our very late lunch, and instead we ate in the cars. At that point, my daughter came to pick me up to my parents’ home, were we ate dinner before hitting the road on the long drive back home. As we drove north we started to see the signs of the heavy rains of the past 36 hours and we were so happy we got to enjoy a balmy day instead and a great hike. It made me especially happy to hike that area since I didn’t do it in years. Every year we came to visit in the summer and this is the hottest time of the year and we couldn’t hike the desert at that time a year.
   
I am thankful for a great hike, one of our best, with perfect weather, great location, and wonderful company. I am thankful to hike this part of my country after so many years I didn’t do it. I am thankful for yet another chance to visit my parent, only two weeks after our last visit. I am thankful every time for this serendipitous event that introduced me to this hiking group and brought so many great moments into my life.