Sunday, January 17, 2010

Dolores River

Three day weekend! Which with basketball and school meant that I had a one day weekend! Oh man was my time really taken away from everything else. You really got to be obsessed to be a head coach because it was completely sapping me of my strength. I needed to get out for a hike. Found a place on the map at lower elevation to get us out of the freezing temps and the piles of snow at home. I could not believe how cold it was every morning. Sub-zero temps to get out to work. Jacqueline and I were now commuting since she was doing her student teaching. This was good for her to get out also as she was a workaholic as usual putting in very long days and then having to come out to my games in the evening. The Dolores River seemed like a good place to break away to. When we got to Bedrock, it definitely was not snow free, but there was a lot less. We parked and began walking the road. Almost immediately, we had a bunch of dogs come running toward us and both of us were a little bit nervous. They were fine, but a little bit scary looking. The owners of course said they were harmless. They always say that right before the dog bites you. Soon the trail narrowed out so that those on the ATV's pulling sleds could no longer bother us and we expected to see no one the rest of the day. The hike was great. It took us above the river and then right down beside it. It made a big curve and we continued to follow it for a couple hours until Jacqueline thought it would be a good time to turn around. I was hoping to get to some interesting point, but instead it was just a day of enjoying the red rock that we both were missing and a beautiful, cold river to walk beside. On the way back we ran into some other hikers which was shocking. It happened to be Sheila who was one of the office women at work with her whole family. She is a great co-worker and super positive all the time. We were really excited to see her out there. We talked for a bit and then were off on our return trip. One difference between canyoneering and hiking was definitely that it was always one way on these canyoneering trips, while hiking you always had to double back and come back to where you just were. I would rather finish the trip with something new all the time, but hey you can't complain too much because it was nice to only have to drive a couple of hours and have some nice red rock scenery to soak in. Oh how I longed for the days when basketball would be over and I could get out more often.