12/25/24-Wednesday-Day 19 “Feliz Navidad!”

Yesterday afternoon Darci asked me if I could once again take on the roll of Santa this year, not so much in the  jolly fat guy with a beard sense but more the wake up early and place the presents under the tree before 4 year old Hannah bursts out of her camper in excitement sense. It is a part that I am happy and honored to play and at 6am I quietly slip out of our camper and do just that! Over our morning coffee and tea we all sit bundled up together for our humble gift exchange while little Hannah passes out the presents. 

As the morning draws on a local church group of around 80-100 people trickles in to celebrate the holiday at the ranch and our small group looks for an activity to get away from the crowds. Clarence mentions that though they are currently experiencing a draught on the peninsula and the adjacent river is nearly dry, just a “20 minute walk up the hill” of a nearby trail reveals some natural pools that are still deep enough for a swim. We all agree a short hike would be nice and each prepare our packs. We head away from the ranch and almost immediately start gaining elevation, walking alongside and crossing the dry riverbed for much of the way. After a couple of stops for breaks and pictures, around 45 minutes into our “20 minute walk…” it occurs to me, Clarence is an accomplished ultra runner and his “20 minute walk” is much different than any of ours, especially our two corgis who are along for the trek. Perhaps time is not the best measure of distance…who would have thought! 

Two and a half hours and just as many miles later, with the sun approaching the far side of the mountains we reach our destination, a slowly trickling riverbed maybe a foot deep in places, lined with cow patties. Refreshing! After some searching Mark manages to find a swimmable pool though all of us pass on the opportunity, that is except for Josh and Hannah, who are already soaking in the nearly stagnate, shallow river. 

With the sun looking to dip behind the mountains sooner rather than later we decide not to hang around too long and begin our descent back towards the ranch. Not long after we start our return journey it becomes apparent that the hike is taking its toll on the sweet baby Duke. We have a backpack made for carrying the pups for just this occasion! Unfortunately around a mile into the hike we realized it had been left behind in the camper. Thankfully the return trip is nearly all down hill and it takes less than half the time to reach camp as it did going up, even though we still take plenty of breaks to let the dogs rest on our way back. 

Once we reach the camper the pups quickly pass out inside while each of us get to work preparing our own offering for a group Christmas dinner among the seven of us. Our contribution is a pot of Picadillo con Papas, a Mexican dish consisting of fried potatoes, seasoned ground beef and onions and a basic salsa of sorts that is just Roma tomatoes and Serrano peppers finely blended with some spices. Josh and Darci make a broccoli salad and some steaks from an elk that he took back in the fall and Mark and Michele fry up some absolutely delicious veggies alongside a pot of rice to round out the feast!