Adventures with Luna: Day 14 - Devil's Punchbowl

Thankfully no one came a-knocking last night, however Luna and I had a very restless sleep with how cold it was. I would stay curled up asleep in the same position for a long time, but as that position became uncomfortable I would wake up and have to roll over and cold air would infiltrate my sleeping bag. I spent most of the night curled up in the fetal position to stay as warm as possible and when I straightened my legs they would seize up painfully from all the steep uphill I had done that day as those muscles have laid dormant for an embarrassing amount of time. At one point I checked the time to see if this night that seemed to go on forever was almost done...it was only 3 am. Finally the sun peaked over the top of my curtains at 7 am and I was grateful for the night to be over. The windows were entirely iced over on the inside, Luna did not appreciate the sound of me scraping them first thing in the morning.

We were at Devil's Punchbowl by 8 am and had the park to ourselves. It was absolutely gorgeous there with such cool geological formations. The trail there would have been very easy, however a thick layer of mud covered much of the trail, sending me slipping and sliding every which way the entire walk up and down the hill. I did slip down the hill on my butt once and got covered in muck, however I was pretty happy that that was the only time I biffed it with how slick it was! We sat for awhile on one of the large rocks, listening to the stream below and enjoying the enchanting views.

We next headed to Mormon Rocks which was a beautiful, albeit surprisingly short, walk. The views were lovely, however the highway running right next to the trail and the telephone poles blocking some of the views certainly did not add to the experience. I was able to block those in the picture to the left, but the highway was almost right below her.

Feeling quite tired from the previous nights sleep, out of water and legs still feeling a little funny from being so seized up last night, I decided to put off my final hike in the area until the next day and head to a Motel 6 for the night to get a good nights rest, a shower and to catch up on things. Motel 6 is incredibly cheap, so much so that I have stayed at campsites that are more expensive than some of the motels I have stayed at, despite being the most economical, pet friendly sites I can find in the area.

I settled in for what I thought would be an uneventful, relaxing afternoon until I noticed Luna suddenly reach to scratch at a spot in a way that suggested something had irritated her. Horrified, I knew immediately that it was a tick, I confirmed my suspicions, then ran out to my car to get my tick remover. The tick remover wasn't working on this small, very latched in tick, so I ran out to find my other one. With poor Luna pinned on her back (which she absolutely hates, but was necessary for the location of the tick), I got the tick remover on the base of the tick and pulled much too quickly in my haste to get it out in the brief snatches I had between Luna's struggles. I was so upset to realize I had broken pieces off of the tick and there was some that I couldn't get that was still in her. I rushed her to the vet, grateful that it was only 4 pm on a weekday so they would be open. After waiting for quite awhile, checking for more ticks and watching a young boy tormenting his families poor tiny maltese/poodle mix type dog and realizing how important it really is for parents to teach their kids how to handle and respect dogs properly, I was able to see the vet. They had to take her to the back room to extract it, she pulled back towards me, terrified as they took her out the door, it was heart wrenching. Everything went well and here's desperately hoping that nothing bad pops up from this tick, the vet seemed positive about it.

I had a lovely skype with my mom and got some washing done and now it is time to get some sleep!