Ya think you’re going to see us on horseback? Think again. This saddle is the saddle between two peaks. My kind of saddle. Looks pretty easy from here, doesn’t it? Must be the camera angle. I worked a lot harder than this picture warrants.
Rain? Well, it’s supposed to rain today and we had decided not to hike. But, at noon, it still hadn’t rained, we were bored with sitting around waiting for the weather to clear and it’s time, time to hike. We started eating lunch while we scurried around getting ready to hike, hiking shoes check, socks, check, protein bars, check. Oops, where’s the dry bag? The bag we can put our camera, watch, billfolds, etc into when, or if, it begins to rain? That delayed up for 1/2 hour but soon we were ready to hit the trail. We’ll look for it tomorrow. Let’s use plastic sandwich bags for today.
Same trail we have started with the last two times we’ve come out here, the Usury Mt Loop trail. 7 miles long, but with beautiful views. Now, we both think that the first mile is deadly dull and the last mile is the same but the middle 5 miles are really pretty neat. So, we’re off. I check the radar: looks like there might be a storm coming our way. Dark clouds, rain coming down from it. Oh, well, we’ll be all right and we took off.
You always know when you’re on Usury Mt - you can see this sign for miles. Now, my question, who is the sign for? Pilots? - I’m thinkin’ that I would rather not ride with a pilot who needed this sign on a mountain about 500’ off the ground.
But, we enjoyed the hike. The first mile: down into a wash, up the side to the finger of land, then back down into the next wash - repeat, repeat, repeat - about 9 times. Dull, dull, dull. The you get to the other side of the mountain and the views open up. The rock cliffs across the valley catch the rays of the sun. The cacti rise tall.
The green of the grasses and brush show the recent rains which have hit the area. Of course, now, that we’re on the other side of the mountain, we won’t see the rain until it’s really right upon us. Oops. But, then, the sun broke out, the clouds over the mountain were white and fluffy and we thought we were in the clear.
We wound around the mountain, in and out of the ridges on the sides. Then we got to the saddle, our spot to sit, eat a bit and enjoy the views. This little character showed us his fanciest scurrying and begging but to no avail. But he was fun to watch.
Of course, you can’t miss the Superstition Mountains off in the distance.
Then down the mountain, around the final section of mountain and we’re back at out car.
Gary always laughs at the way my hat sits on my back when I’m not wearing it. I tell him it’s to catch the rays of the sun and the drops of rain for later. No packs today, we didn’t expect the hike to take very long. I am giving Gary a silly grin, not thinking that he was taking a picture nor that I'd ever put this into the blog. Wrong on both counts.
Great hike. No rain at all, temps in the 70’s since it was cloudy and we were back home by dinner.
’In every walk with nature one receives more than he seeks.’
John Muir
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