It was a bright, pleasant morning with increasing winds. The 13 of us, plus 3 dogs, were headed back to the cars before it got too nasty tho. We all walked up Chaparral Loop and Manhattan Cyn to the gate on the fire road. We even started back together past the Indian Warriors and the large sandstone cliff, but some picked up Manhattan Cyn where it joins the road while the larger group followed the fire road up and down until it met the Nortonville Trail above the cemetery. Just under 3 miles for most of us (John took off on his own for a longer hike).
Altho we did see some flowers, there were not many and most were very small; we feel it is the result of our dry winter. The grass is quite short for late February, 6" or less. The Park district has been cutting many of the invasive Ailanthus altissima (Tree of heaven) along the Nortonville Rd and were busy chipping as we passed by. We also saw a number of buckeye seedlings, planted and caged, in the same area. No sign of goats or sheep this year.
