Amazing hiking

Here at FOY (Fountain of Youth) there is a hiking group that hikes three days a week. On the Monday there were ten of us – we hiked in the Mecca mountains. This was canyon and ridge hiking. Quite different from the Sooke Hills. I had never done any canyon hiking before. There were two parts of this hike – firstly a canyon climb and a long ridge with nerve racking steep sides and then another canyon hike (called Penny’s canyon) that involved multiple ladders up and down and in one place even a rope descent. Quite challenging. The GPS recorded 8 KM and 500 Meters climbed.

The Thursday hike in the Chocolate mountains was  advertised as the most challenging of the week. There were twelve of us – 6 men and 6 women, 3 Americans and 9 Canadians. We piled into a truck (all of us), hoping not to be stopped by a Border Patrol! We climbed continuously up to 2400 feet – in some places it was rock climbing – quite a workout. The views at the top were spectacular – of the Salton Sea and particularly the long aqueduct that originates further south from the Colorado River and which members thought provided water to farm land and to Indio. The descent was partly down scree and then an easy walk out along a wash. The GPS recorded 11 KM and 734 Meters climbed. We were back earlier than usual because of the annual Canada Day event that most were attending after a dip in the spa pools.