The majority of the group of 11 walked a clockwise route up Chaparral Loop Tr to the Ridge and then down to the bridge and up Manhattan Canyon. The other 4 hikers went counter-clockwise up Chaparral Loop directly to the bridge and up Manhattan Canyon. We met at the rocky knoll just past the gate on Black Diamond Tr (fire road) for our lunch. Then we started off together on the return. Some intended to take Canyon Tr down while the rest of us continued the loop to the Nortonville Trail and the cemetery. But the trail marker was missing and everyone went down past the cemetery. That was fine since it gave us a good view of the herd of sheep which included many varieties and lots of lambs.
Our main impression was that the flowers were suffering from lack of moisture. There were few Shooting Stars of any variety blooming and most were very short, the Indian Warriors were stunted and sparse, we saw no Milk Maids. However, the Manzanitas were in full bloom and absolutely lovely.
Altho various fitness tracking apps carried by walkers gave much higher mileages, the map total adds up to just over 3 for the longer route and about 2.6 for the others.
https://www.flickr.com/gp/momcat_ksw/gzk58v
Compare pictures from almost the same hike 3 years ago...3/1/2017
https://www.flickr.com/gp/momcat_ksw/j6HMHY
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