Today, we’re on a quest. The last time we hiked in the Superstitions (3 days ago), we met a couple who mentioned the ‘BIG CACTUS’ and how they wished they had taken time to check up on it. They said it was back down the trail they had taken but with a detour off onto another trail. Not wanting to hike lots of trails unsure of where it was and how far along the trail, I did some research on line to try to pinpoint it. In truth, I got varying answers but several pointed me onto one trail. And, that’s the goal today: the BIG CACTUS which is named online as the ’50-1’ because it is a saguaro with 50 arms. And, who sat there and counted the arms? And, what are the rules for counting it as an arm? If one arm grows out of another arm, does it count as 2? Never mind - that’s our goal.
At the trailhead, we met a Japanese couple at the map board who spoke little English. Being the ‘expert’ that I am on the Superstitions, I asked them where they were hiking. They looked at the map board, shook their heads, conferred, pointed at the map and asked if that was where they were. Oops, this does not look good. I said that it was and then they traced a line on the map which would be about 17 miles along the Peralta Trail. But they did not want to talk so we headed off. Soon we noticed them following us - and we were no where near the Peralta Trail. They must have noticed because they turned around and headed back down the trail.
We actually started up the trail we had hiked several days before. And, who should we meet coming down the trail? You guessed it, Pat, the Search and Rescue Ranger. Again, we know only one person in Phoenix and this is the 3rd time in 5 days that we’ve seen him. He had told us the previous time on the trail that he had stashed some equipment along the trail. Now we find out that he installed a new signpost and had stashed nuts and bolts at the location so he wouldn’t have to carry them in today along with the post. He told us the post weighed 45 lbs and he carried it in? Along this trail that had me huffing and puffing? And, he’s just a volunteer - he doesn’t get paid for this.
But he has our everlasting thanks for putting in trail signs and redoing cairns so trail finding is easier. After we had talked with him for a while we hiked on - a new secondary goal now was to find his sign. And here it is, all 45 lbs of it and all the rocks he had to pile to put it into place.
One goal accomplished, one to go. We really enjoyed this hike, through rugged terrain but there were several springs along the way which enabled trees, grasses and bushes to grow along the trail. This greenery contrasts with the grey hardness of the rocks and blue of the sky and adds a softness to the scene.
We turned off left onto the trail where the 50-1 was and, not knowing exactly where along the trail it was, kept our eyes constantly scanning the area. We found lots of saguaro with varying numbers of arms but no BIG CACTUS. However, we thought it was about 3 miles down the trail so we kept on. Then we rounded a corner and looked across to the opposite side of the valley and there it was. There was no mistaking it, that was the 50-1, the BIG CACTUS.
We hurried along the trail, found the by-way trail up to the cactus and hiked over to pay our respects. Isn’t this a marvelous cactus? Saguaro take about 40 - 50 years to grow 10’ and 75 years to produce one arm. How old is this one? Who knows but isn’t it something? After admiring it for a while and taking all sorts of pictures to document this, we ate our lunch and began our way back. Our goal now was to get back to our original trail, turn left and complete the loop around Miner’s Needle, called, you guessed it, the Miner’s loop.
We had gone quite a ways when we noticed we were back at the Ranger’s sign. Oops, we missed our turnoff. Well, it’s only a mile back so we retraced out steps keeping a careful lookout for the sign. How could we have missed it the first time through? Both of us? A mile down the trail, there it was, 7’ high, 2 signboards attached, in the middle of the trail. And we call ourselves hikers?
After we kicked ourselves, we continued on the loop up to the Miner’s summit, down the other side and around the back of the Miner’s Needle to the parking lot. This monolithic rock is as impressive as was Weaver’s Needle on our previous hike. It dominates the countryside around it.
But, we’re getting tired and we still have 2.5 miles to go. Luckily it is across relatively flat land, at the base of the mountain range so it shouldn’t be too hard. In the picture above, Miner’s Needle is on the right, our car is parked at the bottom of the tall ridge in the background and there is a small ridge line extending in from the left - Oops, do we have to cross that ridge? Is there a way around that? Will the trail take us up and over that? Oh, shucks, not any more ‘up’. Sure enough, we had to go up and over that ridge, which was luckily not too tall.
Back at the car - ugh, are we ever tired. We had been hiking since 8:30 and it was now 4:00. We both think that we hiked 2 miles too many - the two miles that we had to retrace when we missed the sign.
One last story: we had met 2 guys who were hiking the whole 17 mile Dutchman trail from one side of the Superstitions to the other. When we met them, it was about 2 hours before sunset and they had 5 miles to hike to get to the campsite they wanted, actually the first possible campsite along the trail. 5 miles in 2 hours is doable but this is rugged terrain with lots of rocks along the trail and they still had to climb the 1000’ to the Miner’s summit. OK, but that’s not all. We woke up in our RV to 44 degrees with lots of wind and rain. The temps did not climb above 60 today and the wind did not quit. I’m not sure they got to their campsite in time to set up in the daylight but I am sure they had a cold, rainy, windy night followed by a cloudy, damp, windy day.
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