Hiking in the Aral Gorge

A peaceful night with scattered showers was followed by a bright and sunny morning. We had breakfast by the river then made lunches for our day packs. Half of the group opted to stay in camp. Dave spent the day servicing the truck, changing oil, etc. He's such a good lad!

The rest started up the gorge. The views were amazing as we climbed higher. We discovered a pair of vipers in the shadow of a large rock, as well as lizards and lots of gophers. The trail was constantly uphill-not my favorite type of hike! After two hours the trail became a climb, versus an adventure and I opted to find a comfortable rock and do a sketch. The sound of the cool breeze and the occasional bird calls were revere.

I left my perch at 7,000 ft and climbed down through what I am calling a field of yellow "fireweed" and then across another small ridge where I promptly got a bit lost. After finding the river I was back in camp two hours later making the hike a five hour adventure for sure.

My cook team was in charge of dinner tonight and we had MEXICAN! To that we added an awesome lentil soup and carmelized wild iris roots (tastes like green onions) and wild asparagus, we think! We invited the local family to join us and gave them an unplanned sum as thanks for sharing their land. Life is sweet!!!!!

We ran out of firewood for tonight's fire so we went out and collected cow and horse shit. It burns really well!