Crankin - that sounds like fun! I wish I were closer.

RnR Girl, I am in awe. I LOVE that landscape and would love to draw it. I don't think my knee could handle it though, sadly. I dearly love open rocky landscapes like that in your pictures. I like how you called it scrambling - to me that is exactly what it looks like.

The rain has kept me from any good hiking/trekking for the entire month of August. This Saturday I'm planning on a 6-7 mile hike if the trails survived this weeks torrential downpours and just a horrendous series of tornadoes last night. I'm more concerned about trees being down in the woods than I am really muddy trails.

I think some of my hiking partners are getting bored with the types of trails I can safely hike, and I understand that. Mountain bike trails, by their very nature, are a bit more sedate around here than dedicated foot hiking trails. Outside of the single double black-diamond mtb trail in driving distance the topography is fairly consistent - after all - mountain bikes have 2 wheels :-) My knee HAS improved a bit so am hoping for a successful little experiment soon with one of the more challenging foot hiking trails. It's the steep vertical step-downs and descents that my knee gets cranky about, so we will see how it goes.