Hiked to Hackberry Sprngs and surrounding area with my daughter. Found a nature journal that had been left that was pretty cool. Saw some deer tracks in the mud. Lots of puddles of water. We originally planned to go to the massacre grounds, but the road to the trailhead has been permanently closed and now the hike in is much farther.
My doctor doesn't take the insurance my company is switching to for the new year, so we pushed up my hand surgery to today. My fingers are big fat sausages. I have to keep my bandage on for 4 days and can't get it wet for a week.
Hiked to Freemont Saddle via Peralta Trail. About a half mile to the saddle it got really icy. Water would run down the trail and then freeze. I still had stitches in my hand so i was very careful on the ice because I didn't want to rip my stitches.
At the saddle it was very cold, but we got a nice view of Weaver's Needle and took some photos. I used my christmas binoculars to find a Western Scrub Jay. There was a small amount of snow in the shadow of a tree.
About a half mile down I slipped on some ice and sprained my ankle. The ice on the trail had begun to melt and was almost impossible to see. I told my friend we needed to keep moving before it stiffened up. Then we hiked about another 1 3/4 back to the car.
