A Good Walk Spoiled. . .OR. . .Not Much Of A Thrill, On Queenstown Hill

Every so often, I botch one, and our post-Shotover Jet activity on Sunday was one of those times.  Oh, the hike up Queenstown Hill was pretty enough, but I made third mistakes.  One was that I parked further down the hill than I needed too, so we spent time and energy climbing straight up the darn hill until we got to the proper parking area.

The second mistake was that we didn't have enough time before lunch and the clay target shooting.  The third was when we got to the loop track, I chose right (which was wrong) instead of left.

Look, it was nice enough tramping through the high trees with massive pine cones and catching the occasional view, but since we didn't have enough time, we missed the best parts of the Hill/views from the Hill.

The depressing part of being 52 with a bad knee is watching the younger folks half run/half walk up the Hill ("hill" is a bit of a misnomer -- it's a steep grade, and not short) past us.  Maddy was kind -- she would get a bit ahead and then wait for Carol and I to catch up.  The good news is, Carol's bad foot did not hurt for most of the hike, so that's a sign it is getting better.

We probably should have done the gondola ride up Bob's Peak (yes, that's the name!) and hiked around the top -- it would have been faster.  I was worried about the cold, but the day warmed up to mid-50s from the upper 30s pretty quickly.

The trip back down was quicker, and then we went to Fergburger to recover from the hike and get ready for the clay target shooting.  The sun was warm, and it felt nice sitting in the small park having lunch.

View from above Queenstown

Maddy contemplates the view

and her future.  (Deep Thoughts)

Gate on Trail

Rock memorials off trail

The above three photos -- at the overlook

Nearly all the way down.