Retro Hughes Rd. 6.26.18

What a hike!  The only two things that saved me were George and the weather.  This was only a 5.1 mile hike, but the return was a killer.  Lucky the weather was overcast and cool for this time of year.  It had been raining the previous week so the trail was wet and very slippery at times.  Going down to the Rock Creek Bridge was not too bad.  You did notice that I said "down" as the return was a steady slog back up the mountain.  We got a little disoriented once, but thanks to the GPS, we were able to get back onto the trail.  There were 10 of us on this hike and a few smart ones turned back at about the halfway mark.  We did see a beautiful copper head right next to the trail.  Since I was very slow, this hike took me almost 4.5 hours!  At one point the ladder had broken so we had to bushwack our way over some rocks.  Following the hike several of us had lunch at the Blue Ribbon.  If you would like to see some pictures and maps, click here.