Hezekiah's Nob

I just started this blog earlier but wanted to talk about tonight's hike.

Sadie & I headed up the Red Circle from the yard just after 6 PM. The sun was already low through the trees as we climbed up past the Yellow, White and Orange trails. We came down the Cantor Steps onto the Green trail and turned right. After a short level walk we were at an area I call Little Italy where the Green, White and Red Square trails come together. We veered off the Green onto the White and up Hezekiah's Nob.

I stopped to rest on top, sitting on one of the big stones looking out to the view to the southeast where the Blue trail comes up. The White and Blue trails cross on Hezekiah's Nob so I guess it's as close a spot as any to being Red, White and Blue with the Red Square passing just by the bottom of the Nob. We headed down the Blue and came to the corner where Sadie got lost the other night (see previous entry). She followed the trail and we found ourselves on switchbacks down into the ever darkening forest.

It had taken us about a half hour to reach the Nob and the sun was going to set around 7. I'm not sure how long we rested up above but it wasn't long. I also realized that the Blue was taking us a lot farther from home than I had thought about. We turned right towards Yellow on the Yellow/Green crossover and crossed the Orange trail on our way. I thought about taking the Orange home but decided to stay with my original plan. I'd reassess at the junction with the Red Square.

We reached the Red Square just before 7 and I decided that if we were going to get lost in the dark, at least we'd be behind the house. I could call home for a ride from the Red Square trailhead but this was doable.

It was getting darker but the yellow blazes are easier to see than some of the other colors like Green or Violet. You could look up and see the sun was still shedding enough light above that the tops of the trees were yellow but when you looked back down to the trail ahead, it was all shades of gray. There are a few ups and downs in there but we were alongside the ravine from the stream that runs down the neighbors' backyards in a very short time. It was longer up and farther than I remembered along the ravine but soon we were crossing the boulders that form a bridge when the stream is running. After the long dry summer there wasn't any water for Sadie. We turned left onto the shortcut to the Red Circle and were surprisingly precise to my planned arrival back home at 7:15.

So it had taken roughly 20 minutes to the Green, another 10 to Hezekiah's Nob, maybe 20 to the Red Square crossing of the Yellow after a 5 minute break on the Nob and then another 20 to home. I've been doing a reasonable job of finding hikes of about an hour and 15 minutes to an hour and a half.