A big hike

There are four different high points surrounding the valley where we are, and we had hiked to the top of three of them. I wanted to get that fourth one in before we left here so yesterday was the day of the big hike!

We had previously found out that there was in fact a trail to the top of this mountain, but it started from the other side in the town of San Jose de Gracia. So Sal drove us over there with Doug and Nancy. It's getting fairly warm here now so we made sure to get an early start. We set out on the trail at about 9:30am.

It didn't take long and we were getting a nice view. 

That's because it was uphill every step of the way!

In the distance we could see the church steeple from the town of Mazamitla.

Doug and Nancy at the cross. It is very common in Mexico to have a cross at the highest point overlooking a town. This one had a date on it, 1965.

Kevin, Ruth, Doug, and Nancy at the top!

Looking north towards Lake Chapala. You can just barely see the lake. The mountains in the far distance are on the other side of the lake.

Looking southeast towards Valle de Juarez

Us and the view towards Valle de Juarez.

The problem then, was coming down. We could have taken the same route back that we came up, and that would have been easiest. I wanted to walk back to the campground down the other side of the mountain though. But there wasn't a trail to speak of. So we blazed our own trail! We eventually made it to a little village and through some fields and back to the campground. We were gone about 4 1/2 hours and had done almost 10 kms (6 miles).

Here's the route we did...

The actual top of the mountain was in between km markers 2 and 3. 

We were pretty hot and sweaty by the time we got back and Barb had taken the cover off the pool. It sure felt good to jump in the pool. I think today is going to be a relax and recover kind of day.

Time to go vote...we are firmly in the lead now in our division, but we have to keep at it!

http://aussieexperiences.com/contest/entry/red-centre-kevin-read/