Whoo-ee, today was a trifecta, a triple, a hat trick. We saw the Ogre’s Den, the Miner’s Cave and the Marcus Landslide. Pretty cool. Last hike in the AZ region for a while and we wanted to go out big. But, we’ve hiked the hikes that are do-able for us (and a 20-mile overnight backpack is not one of these things) - what can we do now? Well, I’ve got an idea. I was doing some reading and found a hike that we’ve done several times never knowing that we were passing within a few hundred yards of an Ogre’s Den. C’mon - ya gotta see that. And, close by is the Miner’s Cave. How can we pass that up? Finally we can circle around to the Marcus Landslide. Love to find those little out of the way places that we have to hunt for and just make the day’s hike just that much more intriguing. I had this description for the Ogre’s Den:
‘behind Tom’s Thumb on the northwest corner, under a large rock’ and this cryptic description ‘circle around Tom’s Thumb on the northwest side, take the narrow social trail to a place where 2 boulders come together.’ Not much to go on but, we’re game for the quest. I read that there was a hiker’s log book, trinkets donated to the Ogre for his good will and a scrumptious view out over the west side of the Sonoran Preserve. What more could we want: a hidden den, views, cute story and a quest.
When we awoke, the temperature was 39 degrees. Are you sure we want to hike today? Well, neither of us was sure either but we knew that it would get warmer and - this was our last time to get Bosa Donuts for a while. So at 6:30 we were up having breakfast and getting ready. We stopped at the donut shop for our last time and said good bye and Happy New Year to the young woman who always waits on us and the table of 6 or 7 regulars we have seen every time we have gone there - over 3 years. And, we were off.
Ooh, the metal toilet seat at the trail head is mighty cold at 9:00 in the morning. One of the great things about being a woman hiker.
We got to the top of Tom’s Thumb after much huffing and puffing. Ah, but worth every huff and every puff.
Now to our quest. The vague instructions said nothing about scrambling down a narrow crack in the rock between two ‘kissing’ boulders before finding the narrow social trail. We checked out several spots and kept clambering around the boulders and rocks and scratchy greenery until we finally squeezed between several boulders and under a mammoth rock and there it was: the Ogre’s Den with the log book, the sign painted on the wall and the trinkets. Cool.
The trinkets varied from a brightly painted Buddha, to sea shells to candy wrappers to painted rocks to bobble-heads to school pins. Whatever people had with them that they wanted to leave as a gift for the Ogre to gain his favor. And, then there was the hiking log. We see these at many places that are on difficult trails or in special places that only hikers usually access. Sign, read what others have written and enjoy being a member of a community. This log one was brand new since December 27 - obviously someone had just replaced the old one (I wonder where it is). Hey look, the third line says
‘Go Cyclones.’ That’s my school in Ames. A fellow Clone. Amazing. 2 Cyclone fans at the Ogre’s Den in 3 days.
We signed, spent a few minutes enjoying the view out of the Den and then headed back up the trail to our second quest: the Miner’s Cave.
We got back to the trail junction, found the next social trail heading up to the Miner’s Cave and met a young family with 3 eager, excited young girls bounding down the trail who were really taken with the Miner’s Cave which they had just seen. When we mentioned the Ogre’s Den, they told us that was their next goal. I gave them our meager written directions, added our personal descriptions of the trail and they were off. We followed their directions and quickly found the cave.
Tucked away under a large rock is this little gem. Now, I read that this was really not a miner’s cave but made to look like one by? who knows? But, they did a good job. Table, sand bag bed with woolen blanket, sand bags built up to block the wind, a shovel and other hardware. Now, who in their right mind, hauled these items up the Tom’s Thumb Trail to this location? Who would do this? I’m stumped. A small trinket to put in the Ogre’s Den, I can understand but a huge cumbersome picnic table?
The Miner’s Cave is hidden under one of the largest boulders on this rocky slope - right where the white dot is - the shirt of one of the next group of hikers up to the Cave.
A cool sight and great fun for our last hike in Mesa for a while. 2 goals down, one to go: the Marcus Landslide.
We like new trails, ones we haven’t hiked before, that still have some surprises for us. so far on this hike, we’ve been on trails that we’ve been on before but we then took off on several new trails. Uh, not many surprises though - mostly a flatter walk through the Sonoran desert.
We stopped to pay our respects to Lizzy, the Trail Dog who has ‘led the way for 3786 miles’. Must be a dog like Atticus in one of my favorite books: Following Atticus. Nice lunch bench in back of the sign here. Note that there are no massive boulders on the desert floor in back of me nor in the picture above. Remember that observation - for the next blog on the Slidin’ Down the Hill.
Next we headed around the trail to the Marcus Landslide. We’re not done with our day of discovery yet.
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