What You do on New Year's Day.....

 Yesterday was a beautiful start to the new year.  It was sunny and warm . Since we did not get to do as much hiking as we had hoped in 2011, we decided to start the new year off right and get in a good hike. I fixed up a batch of Hoppin John Soup for our post hike dinner (gotta have those black-eyed peas) and

we headed up to Aguirre Springs  campground,  in the Oregon Mountains.  My Grandmother used to take us here for picnics when we were kids.   We decided to hike the Pine Mountain loop.

 This is a BLM campground- not suitable for an RV of any size but a very nice day use and tent camping area.  There was no trail map to be found. So, we did not know how far we were hiking.  We started by going right on the loop.  This was the sunny side and it got warm quickly.  We shed a couple of layers and walked on.

We were climbing at a pretty good pace.  Then, we get to the shady part of the trail-  Uh oh still lots of ice that has not melted.  It was slow going through some areas as we concentrated on not slipping down the mountain.  I kept saying "surely we are halfway by now"  We had been hiking and climbing for almost 2 hours.  
We finally came upon a sign.

Only halfway? Really?  This was a bit more hike than I bargained for on this first day of the new year.  Fortunately, it was mostly downhill from there and went pretty quickly (except for the icy parts).  We were whipped and hungry when we finished.  We ate our soup and cornbread and watched the Cowboys lose their way out of the playoffs.  They say "what you do on New Year's day, you will do all year long."  I sure hope so- hiking, eating good food, and watching football.  I like it.  See you down the road....