Saturday hike...

Mom and I decided to take a challenge hike on Saturday. We chose the Ridgeline trail and to start at the Blanton trail head, and hike to where it intersects with the Spencer's Butte summit trail.  We figured it would be about 6.4 miles and up hill and dale- in other words, a challenge.


We left the house about 8:15 to try to avoid the heat of the day.  The Blanton trailhead was a little difficult to find but also not terribly crowded. It was beautiful on the trail, which is sandwiched between upscale neighborhoods with only an occasional glimpse of a nearby house.
( Pictures )

We never did find the intersection with the Butte trail but we think it must have been a bit farther than the map indicated.  We turned around at 3.3 miles because we didn't want to go much farther than 6.6 miles.  Looking at the topographic map, I think it was still a little ways farther.  Because of the terrain the trial managed to be uphill both ways.
When we finished, my FitBit said we'd taken 15,386 steps, climbed 101 flights of stairs, and burned 573 calories  (I don't trust the calorie counter because it changes from minute to minute).  It took two hours 48 minutes and 46 seconds to travel 6.5 miles.
That is the longest hike I've ever taken.  It's longer than the hike we took in Yellowstone.  The Yellowstone hike may have been more of a challenging climb but I can tell that I'm improving with each hike.