I had planned on a hike in Red Rocks Canyon today.

But my hiking partner called and suggested a change of plans.

At least she wasn’t calling to call off going on a hike. Just thought we should hike somewhere else. Some place new to her, and that we hadn’t hiked together.

I had mentioned that there was a trail head at the Manitou Springs Crystal Valley Cemetery, and she suggested we try that. I hadn’t been on that trail in a few years, but had hiked it in the wintery months, so said sure.

As we were deciding whether to put on our YakTrax or not, three women came down the trail and we asked them their opinion. They all said they wished they had had them on for their hike. Though one said it was actually getting slushier than icy in many areas. We chose to put on the YakTrax and were glad we did. The trail went from snowy to muddy to icy to perfectly dry to very slippery, so were glad to have good traction in many of the more slippery areas. And we both were happy that we had brought our hiking sticks.

This is sort of an urban trail as it gets close to houses and goes past the Manitou Springs High School. Sometimes my hiking partner gets annoyed at the sound of highway traffic, but today, she just was amazed many times at the different views of the mountains and Manitou Springs. It had me looking at my town with different eyes also.

My hiking partner was fascinated at the size and the beauty of the track we hiked above.

Yes, it seems training on such a track surrounded by beauty would make training so much more satisfying.

Earlier in the morning, I had had a bad attack of upsetting memories that related to a Valentine’s Day two years ago. It was really good to be out in the sunshine and walking off the bad mood that had put me in. And my friend reminded me that when we love, we often can get tricked.

Ah, when I can sit and right that whole story, it is one that people may find hard to believe all that happened. Giving some time between it and writing, as I really don’t want to hurt some people involved, but that may be unavoidable, as it will be a recognizable tale to many that were not privy to what was happening in their midst.

Some day soon, I will get back to my book writing, and not just blogging with hints of what is to come.

We got to the street area, and walked a bit up there. Then had a snack in the Tot Lot park. A woman that we had passed going the other way, came up the trail and chatted with us awhile. She sounded just like Dolly Parton.

I had taken a picture of a gate with an interesting sign on it when we were on the street.

And it turned out that that was her home. Welcome to Paradise.

My friend asked her about seeing wildlife in the area. “Dolly” told us that in the summer when the apricots were ripe, and there were many apricot trees up here, that the bears would come around and eat as many as they could, then lay on the ground as if sunning, very satisfied.

Her dog liked to steal the mountain lions food, and bring her odd nasty items. Mostly he would bring her deer legs that she would have to wrestle away from him.

Then, she told us an interesting story of a very up close and personal bear encounter. Not very bright of her she admitted. She was standing at her door, knowing a bear was coming up the street. As she peered through the bushes, they were face to face, he on the road, she below. He smelled her, and they both had quite a fright. He ran off up the street and she thanked her stars that nothing more had happened. Though she kept saying her door was open right behind her.

All in all, we spent about 3 hours on this hike on a lovely sunny day. Not to cold, and not too hot for the close we had on. One never knows how to dress on a wintery hike. And this one did get windy a few times. We could see weather coming in, but the sun stayed shining on us. I was just what I needed to get back into my business world after being frozen and kept inside by they long stretch of very cold weather we have just experienced.

And our feet were very wet by the end. Neither of us actually felt miserable, and it was good the hike was just about finished when we realized exactly how wet our feet were getting. My waterproofing on these hiking boots seems to have worn off. And I have never been good at redoing that task.

When my trees were trimmed a few weeks ago, the trimmer asked me if I knew someone with a fireplace. I said yes, so he left me some perfect fireplace length small logs. My hiking partner was the person I had in mind to give them too. I snowed twice since then. But the last few days was warm and dry, and the logs were dry when I took off in the morning to meet her. I suggested she come get them after the hike. She did and they exactly filled her trunk. They are enough for three or four fires to keep her warm during the next cold spell.

Had a Tony Laidig webinar tonight for his Easy Book Illustrations Foundations trainings. Watching it really made me want to play with book illustrations again. He shows so many ideas for creating illustrations and makes it look so easy. And it really is, if one has the time to focus on a project. Soon!

Plus, I know I must get back to focusing on writing and illustrating a project that I can publish again. And update my “Flood” book. Not something I want to focus on, but have so much new data and photos, I know that needs attention in the near future.

I did get a bit of work done on my taxes, and that is my chore tomorrow. That, and Festival tasks. Need to write up the minutes and get some calls made to stay on track with all that needs doing after our meeting last night.

Am very grateful that  my spirits got lifted up with sunshine and fun stories and good company.