Mesa, AZ - Hikin' in the Rain

Hey, who hikes ‘sissy’ hikes? We’ve held off hiking for a bit since Gary twisted his hip wrong and has a bit of a hitch in his step. It hurts to twist but he can walk straight so we can get our daily walk in. It’s been getting better and finally hasn’t hurt for a day or so - and he thinks he can hike. I planned a short hike which Mr. Macho called a ‘sissy’ hike but that was what I planned for us. Believe you me, there are no ‘sissy’ hikes in this world.

Unfortunately the day we chose was supposed to be cooler and rainy - just later in the day - we’ve got enough time to get our hike in.

        gloves                check

        hat                       check

        warm jacket        check

        donuts                double check - with a coupon we found in the local newspaper: 2 for 1. One of the other coupons is buy a dozen and get 6 more. Tempting - but who can eat 18 donuts? Don’t answer that. I don’t want to hear your comments.

We got to the trail head, started up and got to our junction. Decision time: left up to a short pass and then down the other side and back to the trail head. OR - straight ahead to a much higher pass, down to a valley and up to another pass then down to the trail head: 10 miles and 2000’ . Guess which one we took.? Yep, we took the long hike.

On our way up we met an ‘older’ couple coming down - on mountain bikes. Late 60’s just like us. WOW, good for them. I’ve never seen a woman over 24 on a mountain bike and she was going like mad down the rocky, ledgy trail. Over the rocks, around the boulders, through the curves and - luckily she stopped when she saw us.

We saw this massive hole in the trail and can’t imagine what animal made this burrow in the ground. I’m not putting my hand anywhere near this hole.

As we were heading down from the pass, we noticed that there were dark spots on the rocks, our glasses and on our jackets and the trail was wet dirt. Hey, it’s only noon. What gives? Ah. well, 5 miles ahead to the trail head, 5 miles the way we came back to the trail head. 6 of one, half dozen of the other - why not keep going?

No matter how many times we take a trail, we notice new things on it. Today we both noticed this silhouette in the rocks. I thought it looked a bit like Abraham Lincoln while Gary was sure it was an Indian chief.

No one else on the trail. I wonder why. We got to the second pass and took the obligatory picture by the sign.

Note how misty it is as we look each direction over the pass.

As we headed on down towards the trail head, we met 3 individual hikers, all guys, all, bundled up from the drizzle. the further we descended, we noticed that the rocks had no spots, our glasses were drying up and the trail was dry dirt. The lower we got the clearer and lighter it got. Welcome to the mountains, Nancy.

But, we turned to look back up to the pass - still in the mist, looks like a cloud is over it.
Quicker hike than usual: that rain pushed us fast (who wants to enjoy a soggy bite to eat on a wet rock in the rain?) and we enjoyed the challenge of going faster than the last time we took this hike. Looking for challenges. At one point I looked at the top of the pass and decided that I wanted to make it without stopping - even once. Luckily there were some well placed flatter spots where I could catch my breath. Whew.

Fun hike and not too much rain, just a mild drizzle. But we won’t have out usual apres’ hike treat: cold soda. Maybe a hot cup of coffee.