There are many different trails I enjoy hiking:
long trails
steep trails
boulder scrambles
what I don’t do is:
treacherous
rock climbing
technical
I am not fearless.
Last night while I was planning an errand day for Friday, my sexy stud muffin says innocently,
Gee, we haven’t hiked for a long time. How about hiking tomorrow? And how about that trail you talked about earlier? You know, the Picketpost Trail.’
‘But what about the errands, my sweet duckling?’
‘We can do them any time and, besides, I might forget how to hike.’
Ok, ok, ok. My sweet honey pie says ‘hike’ and we will. So I got out stuff for a hike tomorrow and set the alarm for 6:30.
This morning, at Bashas, the local grocery store, (you didn’t think we’d forget donuts, did you?) we were picking out our donuts waiting for the guy ahead of us who was getting a dozen to pick them all out. The clerk then told him that on Fridays, if you buy a dozen, you get 6 free. He admitted that he and his daughter, who was staying with him, could only eat 12 and he couldn’t take 18. Then he turned to us and told the clerk to give the 6 to us. Oh, wow. After a bit of a discussion, we took only 3 - we do have limits, you know.
His wife died a while back, his daughter is going through an awful divorce and his brother just died. He and his daughter decided to come down to look at the house his brother had here and just relax. Nice guy, terrible story. But, the donuts were great. We then put the money we were going to spend on donuts into the Salvation Army pot outside.
The Picketpost Mt. is a short distance south of our resort so we were soon there. So were about 10 other cars. Popular trail today. Now, we’ve hiked the Flat Iron which can give you great creds here in Phoenix. So, we’re ready for any challenge. This one looks straight up and we couldn’t imagine where the trail would go. But trail makers are pretty ingenious and it’s always difficult to see how a trail goes from the bottom. That’s why it’s always so neat to look down from the top to see how you got there.
We put on our packs and were ready to go. The first part was ok, then we hit the straight up part. We met 3 others heading down the mountain. They were part of a larger group, had gotten so far and had decided that they could not get any further. That’s a clue. But, we’re doing fine so on we went. Finally, we hit a huge 13’ high boulder that we had to get over. I started first, silly me. I got half way up but couldn’t see any place to put my hands or feet next to get higher. I looked around, thought a bit, looked up and then decided that I was not going the right way. Of course, I’m hanging on by fingernails and toenails at this point. I can only look around so long before they get numb. Possibly I should have gone to the right and done my switchbacks up the boulder. Gary, below me, standing on a level rock with both feet and able to look around better than I noted that it was a 30’ drop if I were to go that way.
Hmmm. Rock scramble over a 30’ drop. Hey, sweet honey bunch, I’m coming down. And, I reversed directions, and lowered myself gingerly to the small flat spot where he was standing. We had a short crowded discussion and headed back down the mountain to look for another possible trail up. Gee, I hate to turn around knowing that others had gone up at this point but I was a bit uncomfortable and that means that I shouldn’t go.
We scrambled around, tried a bit of bushwhacking, looked for another trail and finally gave up. We headed back towards the beginning where the trail split and took the other trail, the Arizona trail which actually skirts the mountain and heads further south.
The Arizona trail actually goes form the Mexican border to the Utah border through Arizona. They have been working on it for a while and have most sections done. This section is a relatively new part and was beautifully done. Gary is standing in a wash which borders the trail. It’s always a treat to do the state trails. But, we had really wanted to do the Picketpost.
However, there was a really neat payoff where we stopped on the trail to turn back. So all is not lost. We noticed on our hiking GPS that there was a spring ahead so we headed that way. Near the spring we found 4 corrals and a loading dock for a cattle ranch. Now, we’re about 5 miles from anywhere, out in the But, we can only wonder. That found, we turned around and headed back towards the trail head.
We were disappointed that we were not able to get to the top of the Picketpost but had a great hike anyway. But then, we think that any day hiking in Arizona is better than - well, just about anything - except eating a bit of chocolate.
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