On Restriction

DAY ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY EIGHT

Fifteen years ago I used to hike with my dog everywhere. OK, not everywhere because dogs are not allowed in State or National Parks but almost everywhere. Now it's almost impossible to find a place to hike with your dog. Here in La Quinta most of the trails are closed to dogs due to the bighorn sheep. Personally, I think the closures are stupid but I won't go into it too much today.

There are still a few places I can take my dog without restrictions but I have to be creative and stay off the known trails. That's what I did today.

From the top of the La Quinta Cove I went east to the concrete slab near the mountain. On the slab was a hawk and I managed to get a quick picture just before he took off.

We headed out toward the trails but took a right turn and went up the ridge of this alluvial fan that you can see in the middle part of the picture. There is not a trail there (yet) but if enough people start walking there we can create a trail in the way people have done for thousands of years, by walking the earth.

This is what it looks like when you start heading up. There is no trail (yet) but the terrain is not very difficult. There are a few sections with some decent size rocks but they are easily gone around or over.

As you get near the base of the mountain, you get a nice view of the top of the cove and Coyote Mountain.

We looked around for a while to find the best route for a trail and on the way back we found a geocache.

Which we cleaned up a bit.

Kahlua likes the idea of creating a new trail and suggested the name the Kahlua Trail. She also thinks our next project should be to clean up some of the graffiti around town. I'll put it on our list.