Walked down to the camera to see if the hamburger was gone. No sign of it. Yippee Skippee! That means we’ll have action on the camera. Grab the card and walk back to camp to stick it in the computer. Absolutely nothing on the card. Huh? How can that be? So now we have a bigger mystery...what is able to grab the hamburger without being visible to the camera? Fairies? Aghh!!!
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Today
had been predicted to be on the cool side with rain possible in the
afternoon. However, it dawned clear and
sunny so we thought we’d again do a hike to get our steps. And I almost can’t believe I said these
words: “What do you think about hiking
up Picacho Peak? Not Calloway Trail
again...Sunset Trail. Do you want to do
Sunset Trail? We can go until it gets
difficult and then turn back. No shame
in that, right?” Sunset Trail is the one I said I’d not do
because ‘gloves recommended due to steel cables anchored in bare rock’ was not my jam...we could do the
moderate section of it although that still looked fairly intense. But ‘we
can do hard things’ as Glennon Doyle says in her book Untamed.
OMGoodness,
did I have it wrong! Sunset Trail, which
has a moderate section before it gets difficult, goes up the back of the mountain and is 3.1 miles
one way. Hunter Trail is what we saw
when we were on Calloway Trail and is described this way: A difficult 1.6-mile
trail that begins on the north side from Barrett Loop and goes to the top of
the peak. The trail climbs a resistant path typical of the Sonoran desert. The route is steep and twisting with steel
cables anchored in the rock where the surface is bare. Gloves are strongly recommended. A difficult but rewarding hike.
This
trail was billing itself as difficult right from the start, nothing moderate
about it. We walk a lot but we haven’t done difficult hiking. This was going to take some mental adjustment;
but the phrase ‘we can do hard things’ was running through my head so I said “Let’s
do it.”
We
started with the idea that I was going to be the brake; Kim was game to go to
the top but we’d go as far as I felt comfortable. And after talking to hikers coming back down
I knew I wouldn’t be comfortable going to the very top. Almost all of them mentioned going to the
Saddle which is a scenic stop before the trail continues around the back of the
mountain to the top; after the Saddle the trail became really hard. Hard...what
a relative concept. Like what I’ve been doing isn’t hard? One word of advice everyone gave us was just go slow. Okay, now that
I can do.
The trail was hard packed dirt covered with small to medium sized stones...sort of like gravel. There were steps in places and yes, there was cable handrails provided where there was no dirt, only rock to scamper over. Kim was in the lead...I kept my eyes on the ground to be sure of my footing and my field of view became narrowed to the amount of ground I could see between me and the bill of my ball cap...maybe about 5 feet in front of me. Looking too far ahead was intimidating. We took plenty of breaks, mostly to let people pass us going up the trail.
Stopped at what Kim called the Band Shell, which is a little alcove in
the rocks. Had a snack and enjoyed the
view...hard to believe traffic down on the highway was cruising along at 75
mph. Looked a lot slower from up on
high. Met some people coming down who
gave us a pretty good description of what it would take to get to the Saddle...we
decided to go for it because we’d come this far, we weren’t likely to do this
again and wherever it got to feeling like too much we’d turn around.
We
were told there were some steep spots and indeed there were but not many. No cable to hold onto so it was an awkward
hand and foot crawl up...on the way down I sat on my butt to navigate those
spots. Almost to the Saddle we came across a tiny alcove which we determined had
been used by many as ‘the bathroom’. And
if you’re with someone you can take turns being the door. Just sayin’......
We
made it to the Saddle where a sign indicated that we were at approximately 2960
ft. elevation...desert floor elevation is about 1600 feet. The wind was so fierce that not only were our
hats in danger of blowing off our heads but I thought we might be in danger of
being blown off the mountain. No
kidding. Go back down the trail 7 feet
and the wind was minimal. Rain was
forecasted for mid-afternoon and the sky was clouding over already at about
noon. I wonder if the wind was from the
approaching storm or if it’s always windy up there. Because of the wind we didn’t spend too much
time up in the Saddle. Time to start the downward trek. The dirt and gravelly stones made being cautious
about foot placement an absolute priority. I couldn’t even look out at the view unless I was standing completely
still...didn’t want to chance losing my balance. So glad we had our walking sticks...maybe not
so necessary on the way up but crucial on the way down. And the wind was more of presence on the way
down also.
We started at 10:30 and arrived back at the truck at about 1:50. It took us almost 3 ½ hours to hike up and down a freakin’ mountain and I didn’t get 10,000 steps out of the trip. What?! And getting out of the truck at camp was an act of sheer will. My legs were like jelly and my knees are angry with me but, by golly, we did a hard thing today!👍
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Moments on
the trail:
*On our way down Kim says, “Know what would really suck? If it started raining and the trail turned to slime.” Oh, gee, great, thanks for that...up to now I was only concerned about being blown off the mountain. 😟
*Up
near the Saddle we met a family of four from Colorado who have connections to
Michigan. I put my hand up, pointed to
the tip of my ring finger and said, “Well, then you’ll know what this means... we from here.”
and the little girl put up her hand, pointed to her thumb and said, “My grandma
lives here.” 😎
*Farther down the trail we met a family of five with three children under the age of 8, one of them a baby carried by mom in a backpack. We chitchatted while we rested and suddenly the 8 year old girl says, “Wanna see what I found?” as she pulls a ladybug rock out of her pocket with a big smile on her face. The very same ladybug I left on a rock on my way up. 😎
*Many
of those with young knees that passed us on the way down actually ran down the
last bit of the trail. Our knees complained
about walking down.
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Things to be thankful for:
*Having ibuprofen in the truck
*A hot shower
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Went into Eloy to see if we could get
gizzards to put out by the trail cam. No
gizzards but the IGA did have a package of soup bones. Threw them out by the camera. Hope it
works.
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Yesterday I bought a geode just to see what was inside. I choose one that was peanut shaped, thinking I could whack it in the center and get two little crystal caves. Didn’t quite work out that way. I was told to hit it hard because it’s not an easy rock to crack but not too hard because it could disintegrate into little crystal shards instead of crystal caves. After about 7 hits with the hammer one end cracked off and I had a little crystal cave. The other end looked like a ball of crystal so why not hit it again to see if there’s a hollow spot inside of the ball. One more whack...and now I have a bunch of little crystal shards in addition to my little crystal cave. 😏
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No
imaging tonight on account of weather...no bike ride on account of tired
bodies.
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