Solo hike today. I started on the “new” Rattlesnake Ledge trail and quickly took the “old” trail. I left the old for the new at the first intersection, so I cut off about .4 mile and added some fairly steep terrain.
At the trail head is a memorial to a teenager who died last March – Eddie Petrik is his name – when he and his friends got up to the ledge but it was dangerously icy. He slid off as his friends watched in horror and was killed in the fall. Tragic. A grim reminder that hiking around the mountains can be dangerous.
For me the hike was fairly uneventful. I went up, noticed how low the lake was and then went down, and walked into the middle of the lake basin, where, this spring, the fisherman will be in their boats, casting away.
I was alone on the ledge with only the hungry birds for company. I didn’t break out a snack so they looked at me with contempt.
A fun way to start the day. On the way home I stopped at Jill’s house to drop off her iPad, which was left over the weekend when the kids, who stayed over on Saturday, left with their parents on Sunday. When I came in, Camden was “hiding” under his sister’s bed, a clear invitation to start a game of hide-and-seek.
