Time for a hike. We’ve been a bit distracted recently what with driving over to Freightliner, having to put in a new inverter, whatever. Gary’s been working pretty hard around the RV getting the new inverter into the space we have for it. Up and down, around and about, I’m wondering why he wants to hike - I would think that he might want to rest a bit. But, no, he’s ready to hike. I think he just wants to get out of the house.
We chose Sunrise Peak about 20 miles away. A fun hike but a relentless upward climb. I’m thinking there might be only two times when the trail dips a bit and those are only for about 10’ or so. Not much to relieve the inexorable upward drift of the trail. But, you know me, I’m in it for the view at the top, the WOW !!! factor that makes the climb all worth it. And, Sunrise has a big WOW factor.
Here’s what I mean by relentless upward. There’s just no give here.
Cool little cholla forest along the way.
And, here, we know we’re really out west. Rolling hills, scrub brush, rocky trail, dead saguaro and - sure enough, coming towards us is the trail ride. When you share the trail with horses, stay on the inside and don’t spook them.
Last year we noticed that they were moving lots of earth close to the Preserve where we are hiking and we were sure that the Preserve would have loved to have gotten this land so close but probably didn’t have the money at the time. Now, it’s lost and being developed.
This year we looked over and saw a road in but no homes built at all.
Relentless uphill and then you hit the last 1/2 mile of the trail and it is a real stair stepper of a hike. Luckily there are switchbacks but the trail has lots of scree - slippery rocks. The view is wonderful and the trail makers made you work to earn it.
Above you can see the village of Fountain Hills with its fountain in the background. We hit it right at 12:00 and it goes off every hour for 5 minutes. We were lucky in our timing. In back are the 4 peaks.
The other direction is towards Scottsdale and Phoenix with the outline of the 3-humped Camelback in the background. Camelback is probably the most climbed trail in the Phoenix area.
My favorite sight is Weaver’s Needle. We saw that from a different viewpoint a few weeks ago on another hike. But it is such a touchstone. Way off in the distance, in the middle of the range, the small 2-humped peak that you can barely see. Meanwhile you can see that we might be in the wilderness and feel as if we are in touch with nature, but homes are never too far away. They carved this out of what was once wilderness and saved it for all to enjoy.
While we were sitting there enjoying the view (and trying to get out breath back) a young woman came over announcing that she was going to spoil our solitude because she wanted to see the view from this side. Sure, we said, how about taking our picture. She’s from Michigan, graduated from college in Chicago and came out here to teach History and Special Ed. She like to hike and tries to get one in every weekend. She loves the sun so much that she bought a convertible as her first car. What a character. She took this picture and we took one of her to send back to her family and friends in Chicago who are having frigid temperatures, snow and ice and just an awful time in winter.
Then it was a ‘relentless’ downhill. Wheee.
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