Thursday, May 1, 2014

Gotta Remain Strong As You Can As Long As You Can

Regarding the post title, as my body ages, I find myself repeating this mantra. Half the battle is showing up, staying upright and keeping mobile!

To that end, took a walk Monday on the Pueblo Canyon Rim Trail, starting from East Park and out to the top of the Camp Hamilton Trail. Took the easy way back on what I call the "Happy Trail", aka the Canyon Rim Trail. Guess I call it that because it's almost always sunny, it's paved, it's easy and it's a nice all-weather fall-back when I don't feel like driving to a trailhead.

I was pleasantly surprised that there was not a lot of litter along the section of the Pueblo Canyon Rim Trail below the county's Pajarito Cliffs Site parking lot. I haven't been on that part of the trail for quite a while. After getting bitten by a rattlesnake in June 2012 while picking up trash there, you might say the thrill was gone. Well, now that I've been back and got reacquainted with its spectacular views of our area mountains and Pueblo Canyon, I plan to return soon!

On the wildflower front, saw a few scraggly, yellow wallflowers, Tried to take their portraits but I've never mastered close-ups - all the photos were blurry - maybe I can blame the wind! I managed to capture a nice photo of a yucca  almost ready to bloom. My success was in using the telephoto feature rather than the macro and steadying the camera on my broad-brimmed hat.