SHE'S HOME!!!!

Today was the first hike of our hiking season. The destination was Goodluck Lake. After driving for about 45 minutes, we found the trailhead, got our gear ready, sprayed ourselves with deet-ladened bug repellent, and got going. It was a beautiful day, sunny, breezy, low humidity and clear. The guide book said the destination was almost two miles into the woods. This sign for the parking area lists Good Luck Lake as one of the destinations.

But when we crossed the road to start up the trail, that sign didn't mention anything about Good Luck Lake, so there had to be some consultation about whether we were in the right place or not. Turns out it was the correct trail head, but the sign for the lake and the registration box were about 1/2 mile into the woods.Very confusing.

This is not a mountain summit. A lot of ups and downs and wet spots. After a while, the "leader of the pack", Jane, said she thought we missed the turnoff for the trail going down to the lake. We knew we were walking parallel to the lake, but the farther we went, the more it seemed like we missed something.

We finally turned around and after about 1/2 hour we found the almost imperceptible, unmarked trail heading down toward the edge of the lake. We arrived, but because of the foliage growth and the soggy shoreline it was impossible to get any good photos of the lake. We thought that there was probably a better vantage point farther on, but we were a little constrained by time today. I had to be back in town by 4 in order to head down to the airport to meet Leah when she arrived home.

(We kept trying to calculate how far we actually walked. My estimation is about 5 miles.)

And here she is. Leah 's Home!!! Instead of going to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner, as she mentioned in one of her emails at the beginning of the week, she opted to go to Karen's for ice cream. So we headed to Karen's and Jessica, Brian and the kids met us there. Leah got a flurry and mozzarella sticks--probably two things she wasn't able to get in Kenya.