Adventures in Hiking

Day Three:  Leaving Las Vegas

We spent Dave and Jes' first full day on holiday taking a hike.  We drove about 45 minutes from the strip to conquer "Turtle's Head Peak", a hike described as the most challenging and vigorous of the trails in the area.  I did not know that factoid starting out and, for the record, I made several mistakes before we even began.  First, I did not eat a big enough breakfast.  Second--and probably worst--I wore my running skirt, perfect for a jog, quite immodest for a hike with winds that blew it every which way and definitely UP.  And third, I should have read about what to expect.  In general, I like to be surprised by life and new places but there were several points on this climb where I thought I might slide to my death.  About half way from the top, after rounding a corner and slip-sliding on the gravel, I declared myself done with anything remotely perilous.  I felt pretty out of shape compared to my compadres and was thinking that I am probably too important to my dames at home to risk my life for something as silly as a view.
Yes, I tend to the melodramatic.  Had I researched the climb, I would have known that it wound around to the backside of the peak (rather than going straight up) and got quite easy--though it still left us breathing hard.
After much panting....

here we are at the top

We rock.  Five miles round trip and we look this good :) HA.

We met a few fellow hikers on our journey.  First were the frat boys, descending before reaching the top because it was just too hard.  Hmmm... Then there were whiny girl and her boyfriend.  She was wearing about half the normally acceptable amount of clothing and complaining loudly about a wide variety of subjects.  She and Romeo refused our offer of water (they had not brought any) and we worried about them the whole way down.  A pair of women friends took our picture and told us about "The Valley of Fire" which Chris and I checked out our last day.  One woman we met was doing the hike as a workout, trying to beat a previous time.  As she passed me going up, she said, "Don't stop.  It just makes it harder."  She really brought it and beat her best time to the top by twenty minutes.

Speaking of the top:

Me and C

A big thank you to Jes for this picture.  She took quite a few and I love this one.

More pics of our hike:

at the start

that's the peak behind us

can you spot the rock climber in this one?

trail marker

is she hiking or modeling?

ups and downs

Dave, taking a panoramic picture on his iphone

he did this a lot

see that gravel?  that is what we walked on!

you can't really see it but the strip is behind them

another one of the four of us

on the way down

poser

beauty

I didn't take any more photos after the hike but we stopped at a nearby casino and ate an early dinner at their buffet.  At the end of it, I still hadn't done more than play a little roulette and a slot machine or two.  But the week was still young....