Monday started with a threatening forecast of rain, but it turned out that most of the rain fell in pre-dawn hours at the Enchanted Forest. So bundled up to ward off temps in the 40s our group of 17 headed up the trail into the forest.

The Autumn leaves on the Oaks and Big Leaf Maples were immediately apparent now with golden yellow hues and bright in the daylight.

As we got deeper into the forest, the leaves covered the trail in a thich leaf carpet.

We stopped just before the carpeted trail to get our traditional group shot around the old bullet-ridden Chevy pickup.
Up at the intersection of two trails, we took the Felton Memorial Trail to the right to visit the marble slate with the engraved names of the three men who died in a weather-related helicopter crash some 31 years ago. BLM employee, Jeff Felton, was a passenger on the copter that crashed in heavy fog at the site of the memorial.

After an early lunch, we headed back and completed the 5-mile loop with 600' of gain.

Posthike seven of the group drove up to Pennington Farm to sample their fruit-filled pastries, and Liz took home 40 savory turnovers to feed George and her through the coming Winter.