Shiredancer's Dreams

Today's hike was the Rattlesnake Canyon trail (and no, I've never seen a rattlesnake there -- on other trails, yes, but not there). I used to do that one a lot; used to know it by heart. But I guess it's been almost twenty years since I've hiked it, and it was disconcerting to not remember the way. We took one wrong turn and went up the hillside, by a pond, and back by the creek, until it just petered away into vegetation. Huh. So we went back to the fork and got ourselves righted, rock-hopped across the creek (the creeks are flowing so full! *happy*) and went up the switch-backs. Still didn't look very familiar, but oh well. That's middle-aged memory for you. We decided to cut it short soon after -- for the life of me, I can't recall where the trail ends, whether at some pools or an overlook or the mountain road -- and had our trail breakfast and started back. Turns out it was a good thing, too, because Kidlet called (how leashed are we, with our cell phones???) to say she had a fill-in voice lesson in 45 minutes and could we take her? Hee! We picked up the speed and hopped down the trail in about eight minutes (still had a 20-minute hike out from there). Invigorating, at least! I'm so loving getting back in touch with the hiking and our beautiful foothills. There was a cloud-cover this morning; the very best hiking weather, keeping things cool and refreshing. The canyons are starting to bloom and it looks very spring-like; the leaves are green everywhere (even the poison oak, which is looking very fresh indeed) and the sound of the full, rushing creek fills the canyon. On the way back, in the car, we watched a gorgeous red-tailed hawk soar slowly just over the car ahead of us, and come to light on the plant-covered hillside next to the road. I got an excellent close-up view of it as it turned its head in profile -- just beautiful! (If its tail fans out and is all red, that makes it a red-tail, right? Not a red-shoulder?)

Now Kidlet and Peter are both practicing their music, and I'm going aural-dyslexic with "Carmen" in one ear and some kind of lieder in the other. Big performances coming up! *g*