I came home today with reddish colored mud on my hiking boots, a sunburn on my face, and I even made it home before the liquor store closed! Yeah, that's my idea of a good day. :) I drove down to the Sid's Mountain trailhead with my sister and her hubby to see what kind of shape the road was in. We found a few new geocaches along the way, but the majority of the time was spent bumping along the rough dirt road between Ferron and the trailhead. We stopped to look at some rock art in Horn Silver Gulch that I'd never noticed before, even though it was right alongside the road. Mark and I hiked 1/2 a mile down into North Salt Wash to see how much water was there, and to see if we could make out the trail that goes back up the other side. After that, we drove to Fuller Bottom to see if the San Rafael River was crossable--it wasn't. Mike and I tried the same thing in October 2004 and the water was too high to cross then, and apparently February isn't a good month either. Being able to cross the river would have shaved a lot of time off our drive home.

I wanted to place a new cache out on the eastern tip of the Little Wedge, but the damned road that's visible in the aerial photos is actually barricaded. I'm not sure how they can call it a "wilderness" area if it's criss-crossed by roads. I suppose that'll make a nice hike someday, but I'm not sure when I'll be back in that area and still have time for the hike. Although, hiking along a nice, driveable road, all because of a silly wooden barricade erected by the BLM, is pretty ridiculous.

Is it really just February? It felt like April today, hiking around in just a t-shirt (well, and pants too) and still working up a sweat. I'm sure the weather will turn bad at least one more time before spring really sets in, and I wouldn't be surprised if it happened right before the big hike in two weeks.