Return to Castle Rock

 Yes! Blue skies this morning. There was still forest fire haze in the valleys, but beautiful here on the ridge. Yesterday I was excited to take Steve to Castle Rock. He was reluctant because of the up and down parts. He suggested we try the trail that takes off from the end of our hotel property. We figured since we were already on top the ridge, there wouldn't be as much climbing. 

Then he saw the pictures. 

This morning he was all for returning to Castle Rock. So after attending our daughter's church in San Antonio via the Internet, we took off for the Kingsbury North Trailhead.

The nice thing about hiking here as opposed to the trails at home is that here there is always a rock or log handy when you need to pause "to enjoy the scenery." We did a lot of enjoying the scenery. The blue skies were exhilarating. Blue in any shade is my favorite color, but a brilliant blue sky tops them all.

Look at the blue stuff hanging over Castle Rock. Haze still hid the lake, but we could see the mountains on the other side.

Met some other hikers who pointed out that it was possible to climb up this crevice and get on top this outcropping.

Here's the view from on top.

I took this picture for my Wisconsin friends. I think it would be a long hike to Spooner from here.

We came back to the hotel for lunch. Steve settled down for the football game and I took off for the trail that takes off from the top of the property. I surprised four deer but two disappeared before I could get my camera out. These two were less concerned.

I had barely reached the Tahoe Rim Trail when I noticed how much noisier it was than this morning. It sounded like helicopters. Stupid tours, I thought. But then, it is the weekend. Maybe during the week it isn't this bad.

The trail was mostly contour as hoped. It crossed a ski slope. The helicopters got louder. I could see construction vehicles on an access road below me. Then I got to a place where there was lots of orange tape and what would have been a flagman if this were a road instead of a trail. He held me back while a helicopter went overhead. It wasn't tours at all. They are building a new ski lift and the helicopters are ferrying the pieces to the top.

You can see in this picture that the sky is no longer blue. I began to taste smoke. A couple hundred yards past the "flagman" my eyes started feeling gritty. Hiking in this is no fun. I turned around to go back to the hotel. The flagman told me in the last couple minutes the Air Quality Index had gone from 100 to over 300--into the hazardous for your health range even if you don't have a prior condition. He had put on an K95 mask. Yeah. Good idea to turn back.