Sonya's Blog - Day 249 - Alkali Flats

Sonya's Blog - Day 249 - February 26th - Alkali Flats

Today we are doing the Alkali Flats hike. The guidebook says this will take about 3 hours, but we are anticipating doing it a little faster (it is 8 KM's). We usually don't take as long as the guide says.

We got there at about 11 and headed out. It started out pretty easy, but soon we were climbing up and down sand dunes and, let me tell you, there is nothing easy about that. Going up is hard, because it is hard to get traction in the soft sand. Some of the dunes are very steep and quite high up. It was a little exhausting.

Natasha likes to go her own pace, listening to her tunes:

We stopped just before the 1//2 way point to have water and some lunch. Kizmet had already drank most of her water (she has her own little water bottle, but she doesn't carry it:)) She had a tiny bit more, but instead of drinking it she decided to bury it. She has no survival instincts, that dog. That was her only water and she filled the bowl up with sand! What a stinker.

We continued on our way, but wow were we getting tired. It stared to get really hot and Blake had to wear his hoodie the whole way, because he forgot his hat (he is very forgetful). Isaac got his second wind, after eating, and did a lot of goofing around on the sand dunes. He was rolling down them and running back up to do it again. He did break his sunglasses doing this! What a goof nut. I had to share my water with my stinker of a dog, and boy was she greedy for more. We had extra water in the truck, so I wasn't too worried. Kizmet was really tired at the end, she kept lying down and didn't want to move. We could see the truck by this time, so we had to keep coaxing her to go on. We had 2 gallons of water in the truck and we drank one of them when we got back. So thirsty! Kizmet drank a bunch and then just wanted in the truck for her nap!

We had taken off our shoes early in the hike, they were just getting filled with sand. It makes it easier to grip the sand in barefeet, but our feet were rubbed raw by the end of the hike.

In the end the hike took us about 2 1/2 hours, so we made pretty good time. It took a lot longer than I had expected and it was the hardest 8 KM's I have ever hiked. Who knew that sand dunes were so hard to hike. I guess that's why they call it their black diamond hike.

We saw this guy on our way back to the campsite, check out the dog in the sidecar - hilarious:

We didn't do much for the rest of the afternoon. I just continued to read my book. Later on, after supper, we watched Lincoln with Daniel Day Lewis. They had a small library of movies at the front office, that we could borrow. Blake thought this would be a good one, since we have learned so much about American history. It was very good, a bit slow for Isaac.

Sonya