OkCupid - RudeDude Hiking Date

Well everyone Rick aka RudeDude took me up on my offer to go hiking. I swear right after I posted about the Thai lunch date he texted me saying he'd like to take me up on the offer. I had suggested going to Red Rock in my previous post and he decided that was something he was interested in doing. I don't know if I was necessarily surprised or not but I was game for going on a hike so I wasn't about to retract my offer. The perfect hike was all ready in my mind thanks to the recent weather Vegas has been getting so now I had a great reason to go. Let's get on to the hiking date shall we?

We decided Saturday would be the day to hike because we both had the day off. Vegas has been getting a lot of rain lately and cloudy weather on the mountains meaning snow. It doesn't mean much for anyone living here because it doesn't stick or last. However the Ice Box Canyon hike at Red Rock was bound to have a waterfall thanks to this weather. If you go during the summer the hike just has rocks and a pretty canyon with an empty waterfall waiting at the end. I figured now was the time to go so I told Rick that was the plan.

Rick had never been to Red Rock before so I sort of explained that we would meet at the trail head and that it would cost to get in. He was fine with that because he would just use his military discount. We decided to meet at 8:30am because even though I love sleeping in on the weekends it's best to show up for the hikes early. If you wait until a little later in the morning everyone and their dog will be there clogging up the trail. I didn't want to deal with any of that.

Once again my best friend was aware of the game plan and she was ready to go hiking with me. Well, not on the date of course. She decided that the best course of action was to go to Red Rock together and she would hike a different trail while I was with Rick. In order to keep things safe she bought walkie talkies because there is no cell service while you're in Red Rock. That's nature for you. So that's what we did.

I was about 10 minutes late because if you don't know the Red Rock scenic loop is 13.1 miles and right now there is construction on it. Then there's the tourists who think that instead of pulling off to the side of the road to take pictures they should go 2mph taking up the entire one way road. My best friend and I also got stuck behind a whole group doing the scooter tour so that was pretty funny to watch.

When I arrived at the trail head Rick was there waiting and I hopped out of the car before my best friend drove off. I apologized to Rick for being late and lamented about the tourists ruining my on time abilities. He said it was fine and that he hadn't been waiting long. Now here is a question for all of you. If you're going to go hiking what would you wear? If you tell me jeans and a t-shirt then you will look like Rick did! If you tell me workout clothes then you would match me in exercise pants and a workout shirt.

Next question, what would you bring with you on the hike? If you say nothing then you are unprepared and need to go home ASAP. If you say a water bottle then congrats! You made a smart choice. If you say a camelback then you're brilliant like myself! I'm so proud of you. Rick had a water bottle, but it was one of those protein shake bottles. You know the plastic ones that have the metal orb in it to mix the protein powder with the water? Yeah, that was all he brought. Then there was me with a camelback full of 2L of water along with snacks, a compass, a first aid kit, a poncho, and the walkie talkie. What can I say? I was prepared like a boy scout.

The fact that he was ill prepared aside we start the hike and talked about other hikes we had been on. Since Rick is new to Vegas I told him that Red Rock had a lot of great hikes worth his while. He told me about different hikes he had done while he lived in California. I pretty much led the way for all of the hike. Let's just get that out of the way now. I had a better idea of where I was going and the trail wasn't wide enough to allow two people to hike side by side. We chatted about random things and soon we got to the canyon part of the hike.

Remember all that water I was expecting? Yeah, it was a lot more. The trail was covered with running water so it was a lot of rock hopping and figuring out a way to get either through the water or around the water but mind you we were in a canyon so there weren't a lot of options. I had fun playing mountain goat as I jumped all around and explored to find our best option for where to go. Rick on the other hand struggled a bit. He didn't have much balance but managed to follow along with where I went and kept up.

I did tell him to say when he needed a break or if he needed me to slow down because I know I hike fast. I fully and proudly admit it. Instead Rick just said his long legs could keep up with mine and he would manage. There were some parts where we had to kind of jump up and climb rocks and Rick's protein shake bottle was getting in his way. I told him to toss it up to me and then just ended up putting it in my backpack because it was becoming such a nuisance.

At one point Rick made a point of saying "I'm not complaining but I'm just wondering how much farther we have to go." The hike was definitely made a bit harder due to all the water and we had seen plenty of people turn back at the halfway point. I told him we were practically there and had two more corners to turn before we'd see the waterfall. He was fine with that and we continued on.

True to my word we arrived at the waterfall shortly after that and there were only four other people there. We both took pictures and another hiker offered to take ours. Rick and I looked at each other for a moment before I told him it was his choice. He said yes so the hiker took our picture and I then offered to take his. It was a fair trade. There was a lower pool and an upper pool so of course we decided to climb up to the upper pool. Mind you the rock face was all wet so it was a bit slippery but we made it up with a run and a jump. It was really cool to see because there was an actual waterfall and the water was cold, although very brown and gross. We rested for a bit before sliding back down to the lower pool and starting our hike back to the beginning.

I led the way once more and going back was much easier since we knew the easiest routes to go. I sort of kicked it into high gear (I'm going to call it an adrenaline rush) and started going faster while Rick continued on behind me. I hope he didn't think I was trying to ditch him or anything but I do hike fast. Not like running a hike but I like to go! We got to the halfway point and suddenly there were a lot of people trying to get up to the waterfall where we had been. They made it a bit more tricky because of course they were falling in the water and then getting on the rocks. That made the rocks wet so they were slippery when we walked across them.

No matter because we did just fine continuing on. A lot of the people asked how much farther they had to go and if it was worth it. I told them it was and that they just needed to be mindful of the water. Rick and I passed more and more people coming in on our way out but that only served to prove my point that we needed to go earlier in the morning rather than later in the day. A lot of people had speaker backpacks blasting their music and I told Rick that I had missed the memo. He replied that such a thing would have been cool in middle school and I laughed because it was true.

We finished the hike and Rick asked if I needed a ride to where my best friend was. I told him I was fine and that she was on her way. I had hit the call button on the walkie talkie but she hadn't answered. I knew where she was and wasn't worried. So Rick said goodbye and I made my way up the scenic road because there was another waterfall I wanted to check out since my best friend wasn't responding. I got to the waterfall and my best friend found out that our walkie talkies did not in fact cover 23 miles and instead barely worked with 1 mile between us. Pathetic I know.

Once out of Red Rock and with service Rick sent me some of the pictures and said he had a great time. I told him I had fun too and was glad that he enjoyed it. Now my last question is what do you all think of this? Feel free to answer all the previous questions as well. (: