Labor Day on the Mountain

The foothills trail

There were lots of people on the mountain this morning, including the now ever-present hunters who were down in the larger arroyos hunting quail.  In order to avoid some mountain bikers who were coming down a single-track, we took a western fork that led us right into the path of five people with seven dogs.  Fortunately all of the dogs were well behaved, so there was no canine unpleasantness.  We did a fairly long hike, avoiding the outback because of loons with guns.

Terribly maligned old shack

3 1/2- to 4-foot Gopher Snake

Not too worried about us (we had to go off-trail to get around it)

Heading up to the saddle

Dropping out of the higher foothills