Some of you know, some don't. Sam has co-parents. Erv and Nancy love Sam with the same intensity that I do and he spends about 10 days per month with them. We'd have equal custody but they worry about my lonely ass.
Sam is a hound so I can rarely get a good picture of him. Generally speaking he has his nose right near the ground and moving.
Saturday it was time for Erv to bring Sam back to my house and since the temperature was low we decided to take a walk over Little Cross Mountain. It's not much of a mountain, but it passes that description here.
It's rocky. The little teeny amount of dirt has blown in over the millennia and a limited amount of flora can be found. Tough plants that can survive on no moisture for a long time. We haven't had one drop of rain since March.
If you look right of center on the ridge line you can see the cross that gives this place it's name. Somebody hauled it up and set it in concrete so that it looks out over the I-8 freeway, I'm sure it inspires the one in a million that notices it.
This is the view from near the cross to the next peak. The mountain has several trails on it, so you can go to it fairly often and walk different routes to vary the experience. All the trails are rocky and narrow.
Sam and Erv with Sam between us. Normally he is off sniffing and checking the world out. The cross is left of center at the ridge line in this photo. We only covered a little over 2 miles (3.2 km) but I have to tell you that my legs still have sore spots two days later. It is steep with questionable footing in a lot of places.
This is the trail along the spine of the mountain. There is a valley between the mountain I'm on and the next batch in the background. Some of those peaks are much tougher climbs.
The view from the top, looking back toward where I live. Little Cross sits just all by itself with very flat valley floor surrounding it.
Looking the other way from the peak. If you look really close in the right hand corner you can see Sam's butt and one of Erv's hiking poles. Pretty desolate country.
The view towards the next range of mountains to the east, the Chocolate Mountains.
It was a good hike, and mercifully short. It's hard work, up and down and if I'd have had to double the distance I'd have been completely used up. I haven't been here since March, and my legs let me know. Erv and I decided we were going to take a rough service walk once a week to get our legs back in shape.
All these pictures were taken with my Apple SE phone, and I am quite pleased with the camera on Apple's 'value' model.
All words and photographs in this post are mine. For better or worse.
Thanks for reading this all the way to the end. Anything can happen and often does.
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