Eventually I'll take my tripod with me on a hike so I can get a photo of myself. This will have to do for now.
Anyway, it was a beautiful morning so I went on a non-specific hike just to get a few miles on my boots. I started out on Blevens, then onto the Moon Rock and cut off onto the Levee Trail.
Since we had some rain recently, the desert was much greener than usual and a few plants are even flowering already. While most of the flora was a darker green, the Teddybear Cholla cactus was so brilliant that it looked almost fluorescent. A few times I just stood there and looked at it for minutes on end. For the first time ever I got a Cholla ball embedded in my boot. I so glad it was my boot and not my leg.
At the end of the Levee Trail, it turns into the Channel Trail, which are actually two parallel paths at the South edge of the park. The upper path gives you uninteresting views of the encroaching neighbor's back yards, but the lower path about 75 feet to the North keeps the view purely scenic. I got off that very quickly and hiked up a wash, hoping I would see more of the fauna. All that crossed my path was an iguana that was gone before I could get anything but a picture of it's tail. Above was nicer, as I got to watch a red tailed hawk glide along thermals. A week ago I watched 3 of them fly above and beyond Cat Peak.
About a half mile up the wash I was back on the Blevins, at which point I did my usual jaunt up the Meredian Trail, Cat Peaks and final half mile on the Pass Mountain Trail. With a lot of stops for photos and admiring, it took just over 3 hours 15 and Im guesstimating just over 5 miles.
And yes, I took some truly exciting video today near the Cat Peaks / Pass Mountain junction. If you like watching paint dry, this will not let you down. Next time I will add dialog and call it "Survivor Dan"