Another day, another hike. But then, that’s why we’re in Apache Junction. Last year, we had heard from another couple that the Apache Junction area, next to the Superstition Mts., had access to lots of trails and planned our winter to include this area. We actually got up early so we could return home early and were on the trail by 9:00. It was another gorgeous day and we were able to unzip the legs on our pants so we could hike in shorts. Not too much elevation to this trail but enough to keep us moving.
We started the trail right behind two young 26-yr old women but caught up with them at the first sign post.
They were in regular 26-yr old clothing with sneakers on their feet. Gary and I were all kitted out: hiking boots, hiking pants, hiking shirts, hiking hats, hiking poles and packs. Obviously we’re 65 and hiking ‘right.’ We chatted a while about trails, one woman’s 2-yr old who hiked, the restaurant at which the other worked but, we had started early for a reason and said our good-byes and took off.
Soon, after I had spent some time taking photos, we heard voices in back of us and realized they were getting close. Not in our lifetime. We quickened our pace and got ahead of the voices. We wound our way down a very rocky trail into a basin with hills all around. Beautiful but then we heard some voices. Shucks. We looked back up the trail into the basin and saw not only 2 young women but a whole army hiking onward.
We quickened our pace and began hiking up out of the basin but found a nice shady place with some big sitting rocks for lunch. Time to relax and enjoy being alone in the wilderness. Oops, there they are, wending their way up the trail.
Back on the trail. We really were enjoying this trail, especially being in the basin surrounded by hills and blue sky. We could see the Weaver’s Needle towering over the whole basin. (See Nov 3)
Shortly after we got back to the trailhead and while we were taking our packs and shoes off, the two young women arrived. We had beaten them back. Then, of course, they had to let drop that they had tarried a bit to let us have some solitude. Yeah, right.
Then the army arrived, a hiking club from one of the many retirement communities in AJ. (Look at AJ form the air on Google maps and see how many retirement communities of manufactured homes there are clustered here.)
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