return to fins n things

Sunday was the closest thing we had to nice weather for the whole long weekend; while we didn't actually see blue skies, we saw bluish patches.  At that point, we were glad to get that.  H wasn't feeling the hiking thing (battling a yucky head cold (that I came down with a few days later)) so Milton and I were on our own.  We didn't want to do anything new and exciting without H so we decided to go back to the reverse Fins N Things hike we'd done just about a month earlier.

This is the sunniest it got

As before, there wasn't much going on as we drove in - not even any cars in the Slickrock trailhead lot.  We did the same route, finding it a little muddier from the slowly-melting snow, but not any busier.  We stepped to the side to let three trucks go by in the first half and later, as we were coming back from the overlook, four dirtbikes sped by us.

The most exciting part of the hike was when Milton, ranging through a sagebrush area, flushed out a desert cottontail.  This was an adult rabbit, savvy and fast enough to get away safely.  But Milton was VERY keyed up about it: I had to call him many, many times to get him to come back to me and then, as we continued our hike, he ranged further afield, seemingly convinced that if he'd found one rabbit, surely he would find another.  (He didn't.)

I don't see any rabbits, do you?

When we were out at the Grandstaff Canyon overlook, we thought about exploring the foot-traffic only trail that led into the wilderness study area.  The trail was on the shady side of the canyon, however, and pretty well covered in snow and ice.  I thought that it would be better not to explore in those conditions, just me and the dog, so we left it for another day.