Sunday, November 11, 2012

FIRST I HIKED, THEN I BIKED, THEN I HIKED AGAIN

Well, I should say that I started out with this Hike and Bike club actually hiking with them several years ago.  Lately, including the bike ride last week was the first time I biked with them, but they had a hike today that I've been wanting to do.

It was another part of the El Dorado trail, that what I've been told and everybody knows, is that there were many homeless people there and not to go either by myself or even with another person.

Today, there were 20 people doing this hike, so I figured I wouldn't feel threatened.  Indeed, there was a tent set up and a lot of trash strewn around.  The trail starts in the back parking lot of Walmart.  I'm surprised Walmart hasn't done something about this problem or they are just waiting for something to happen to do anything about it.

It was a six plus mile hike and we did it in about 2 1/2 hrs.  After we passed the homeless section, the trail followed old railroad tracks and through some really beautiful areas containing lush meadows, oak and pine trees.

When we started the hike at 10:00 AM, it was quite chilly and I dressed with a winter knit hat, my winter coat, gloves and my wind pants.  The temperature was hovering around 36 degrees, but was very sunny.  Hiking boots were suggested and so I wore them too.  I decided not to bring my camera since I was dressed so heavily.  A couple hikers brought their dogs.  One was a small dog and I was very surprised she did the hike.  His owners did carry her at times, but she was only about five pounds and just a puppy and just got spayed, so I was really surprised at her energy all through the hike.

There is a struggle between the county and hikers with regards to the railroad track.  The county wants to keep the tracks and the hikers want the county to take out the tracks and make a hike/bike trail which would be wider than it is now and paved.  Of course, neither of the two have the money to do this, so it remains a small hiking path along a defunct railroad track.

Glad I'm getting to see the whole trail, little by little.

No comments: