Challenge and Satisfaction

Challenging our hiking skills, we set out to hike the Peralta trail once again. This time we made a loop taking the lesser travelled, unmarked Cave trail down from the Fremont Saddle point of the Peralta trail. After reaching the saddle, we headed to the Weaver's Needle overlook. From there we caught the Cave trail which would take us down the ridge opposite the one we climbed up. 

ARRRGH! We made it to Weaver's Needle overlook!

A hottie at Weaver's Needle overlook

Can you find the profile of a head of rock in this photo.

In this picture we are on the Peralta trail looking up at the caves (2 dark spots just above the yellowish layer of rock) on the Cave Trail.

The challenge of Cave trial resides in the many tributaries branching off to the other side of the ridge, backward, or nowhere. Many times the trail disappears and all you have is a jumble of boulders. It is on this hike we learned the importance of cairns. The dictionary entry is as follows: cairn |ke(ə)rn| noun 1) a mound of rough stones built as a memorial or landmark, typically on a hilltop or skyline.  When the trial was just a large face of a giant boulder cairns showed the way. 

Charly teaches about cairns

As we hiked along the trail we could look down and see people on the Peralta trail.

Soon we came to the fortress a large hill where just up past the yellow layer of rocks are the caves we heading for. We eventually reach the caves do some exploring. Then set out to begin the most treacherous part of the hike. We will soon reach Devils Slide and then traverse down a boulder sliding down 20 feet on out butts.  Once we reached the bottom we continued to Cathedral Rock looking back we could see our accomplishment. Satisfaction, a beautiful day and a wonderful hike full of adventure. 

 

The Fortress

View of Cathedral Rock from the Fortress

Exploring the caves

Cutie in a cave

View of Peralta Trail from caves

Looking back at where we've been