The Hike to Peter's Cave

Groan, a pre-dawn ride north, passing to the east of the Goldfield Mountains as the sun rises. So beautiful. Yet, I was 15 minutes late, which is fine cause I kind of enjoy starting late and tracking down the group, this time 14 other hikers.

Hiking out here can often be, well, not straight forward. When I arrived at the parking area t Tortilla Flats, I saw the last of the group disappearing over a ridge so at least I had that reference point.  I threw on the pack, tightened the straps, made sure I had my camera and all other stuff secured and I went cross country.  I found either a game trail or the faint route, ran a bit, listened...silence...ran some more, listened...heard voices and finally....

...tracked down the back of the line.  I worked my way through the group and found the.....

...hike leader, Mark on the rock, urging others to keep going. Today was to be a boulder hopping kind of day.  It's not the distance, maybe 7 miles round trip but the jumping from rock to rock gets to the bottom of your feet.e

I got out front and reached a very cool slick rock area that still had pools of water despite rain only once in 60 days.Beautiful spot.

So far, the hike had been in the shade but around this corner, no more shade but that was ok.  We started with temps around 60 and it was very comfortable hiking weather.

At times, the canyon got rather narrow but there was always a way through and then...

,,,,how bout that; Peter's Cave.  It was a short but steep climb to the entrance.

The rest of the gang arrived soon and took turns posing in front of the opening.  It was promoted as a hike for only fit people and it did attract a very fit group.  They did linger too long for me so I thanked Mark, the hike leader for organizing and struck out for the parking lot.

The bottom of my feet were aching from the jumping from rock/boulder to rock/boulder and when I found relatively flat areas, I was relieved.  Very scenic and another adventure, with more to come.  Especially an epic one on the 6th.