Old Boney Trail

It's been a long time since we have blogged about our hiking adventures. On Sat. we decided to make our way up the Big Sycamore Canyon Trail and turn right instead of our usual left at the fork in the road. While we were out hiking we started to talk to some of the bike park rangers. They told us about the Old Boney Trail, while they acted like the steep climb might have been too hard for us, we were up for the challenge. Perhaps we didn't look like seasoned hikers but we have climbed a hill or two! The climb started leisurely and then became pretty steep. After a good 1/2 mile of a large grade we made it to a more gradual climb again. Eventually finding ourselves at the top Marcus was interested in his iPhone service and we took the opportunity to call his mom. A nice rest at the top proved to be serene. The hike down through the valley held much more out of the ordinary than we imagined. We came across old farming tools, and a water pump. Inscribed into the cement was the date 9-1-51 perhaps the date of this old water pumps erection. It is of no use now other than to entertain hikers as a new path has be carved into the breeze grass by many who have traveled by . We continued past the grasslands area of the hike to the more wooded valley. We followed along a river bed, luckily for us it has not been a rainy year or we would have had to take our shoes off several times to pass through. After a few scratches from plants and near slips from damp rocks,we eventually connected back up with a trail we hiked last February. Familiar fossilized rocks marked us nearing the end of our hike. Our 10 mile hike became the most interesting when we made it back to the car, as Elizabeth pulled off her shoes to inspect my scrapes from a thorny tree. She discovered her pain came from a small tick. We grew quite alarmed as she did not want to contract Lyme disease. Nor did we want to pull the tick out, and it's head get stuck in my ankle. (perhaps a little bit of an overreaction, although it was our first tick experience) A short trip to the doctor and some antibiotics insured a safe removal and prevention from any infection.