We went to bed when it was dark and getting cold...during the night it was on the colder side of comfortable but we were ok in our sleeping bags. At 8 am, we were awaken to this site...and it was warm. I climbed out of my sleeping bag and quickly began shedding my multiple layers.
We sat around camp, made coffee, had breakfast and then packed up. We were amazed by how warm the sun was so we made sure to sit in the shade. Sorry, I can't turn the picture so you will have to turn your head!!
The goal today was to get to Aspen Springs Cabin. We had no idea how far away it was...we had no idea how much further we had to go on the Barbershop Trail. Turns out we were only like a mile from the end. We had a decision to make...do you believe the sign and the mileage?
If we decided to go to the General Crook Trail, we could then take that to another cabin. We had no idea how far down the General Crook trail the General Springs Cabin was so we thought we would hike the 1.5 miles to the end of this trail and see what the sign said. So we dumped our packs since we knew we had to come back this way...
and we were officially on the third trail...Houston Brother's Trail.
Well, the darn sign lied...again...big suprise. It wasn't 1.5 miles down to the end, it was 2 miles. Now, the sign where we left our packs said it was 4 miles to camp. So we hiked about 1 mile on Barbershop, did 2 miles to this sign which meant 2 miles back, get our packs and do 4 miles to camp IF you believe the sign.
So we decided to just go down the trail--which happened to be the road at this point--for a little while. We were able to cell phone reception so Jason called his Dad and spoke with him on Father's Day. I had to leave a message for mine. The camera took a dump on me here. I thought these would be the last pictures for this camera...but I amazingly got it working again.
We decided to only go about a mile down the trail/road. The trail was not very good so we just went to the road, grabbed a geocache and hiked back to our packs. We had some great views and a sign in the middle of nowhere--usually these were at a trailhead or a trail crossing.
There was a little stream that went into a pool that would have been like knee deep. I was tempted to go in but that would require removing my hiking boots and socks and then drying my feet afterwards and that just seemed like too much work!
We found some pretty flowers along the trail--ok one was a weed but the orange ones were amazing!
We passed this really gnarly tree and a ripairian exclosure area.
Some more pictures of the trail
And finally, before we knew it, we were at camp! We were staying at the Aspin Cabin. There was a neat footbridge across the stream and an outdoor fireplace/chimney.
It was a very interesting area...had a cabin with an old stove out back...and what appears to be a road!!
We were debating where to camp that night. The east side of the stream had a huge campfire ring, a nice wood pile but it was in the direct sun when we arrived. I liked the west side of the stream because the campfire ring was smaller, we could just bring some of the nice wood over and it was shaded. So we decided camp would be on the west side...this is the view from camp--very shady but across the stream was in full sun.
This was the campsite we decided on.
Jason got busy filtering water...and our wonderful camera got a great action shot!
We put up the tent and ended up with it being right ON the trail. Good thing there weren't any other hikers out here!
We both had Turkey Tetrazzini for dinner and it was very good again. We got into camp around 3:30-4pm and figured we hiked around 11 miles today. We were happy to relax. I finished my wine which was still very good and made it an early night again. It is amazing what happens when you don't have electricity and the sun goes down. Now, here is hoping to a nice night of sleep and a shady morning!!
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