Time for another hike and it’s off to the Superstition Mts. where we hiked lots last year. I remembered a nice hike which we had taken and, since it takes us pretty deep into the Superstitions, we can really feel as if we are the only ones around. Of course, when we reached the trailhead, we quickly realized that it was hiking club day for many of the resorts around. We saw about 15 cars at the first trailhead and about 25 at the main trailhead. Ah, well, it’s a big area so maybe we won’t see many. We did pass one large group of about 10 and another group of 8 but that was about it for our hike. I think we started later than the rest of those did and they were way ahead of us.
It was a marvelous day and perfect for hiking in shorts and a t-shirt. The sun was shining, we could hear birds singing from their perches on the rocks, the wind rustled through the brush and the views were simply stupendous. We could see the Weaver’s Needle (below) off in the distance and Battleship Mt. looming ahead of us.
Half way around the loop, we decided to diverge from the main trail and take a larger loop, through Boulder Canyon on the Boulder Canyon Trail. Now, if you’ve been paying attention, you’ll know already that there are lots of
boulders on the trail and, in fact, the trail not only crosses the bouldered wash many times, at times we were actually walking right straight down the bouldered wash.
Imagine trying to walk on piles of irregularly sized and irregularly shaped bowling balls, and you’ve got a picture of Gary and me teetering along the wash. Well, I was teetering and tottering but Gary was striding along, leaping from one to the next like a mountain goat. Now, I don’t want you to think that we were surprised by the boulders, we actually walked this trail both ways last year and so we knew there were lots of boulders.
What we had forgotten was that the trail is seldom used and thus the brush had grown up around the trail and, at times, obscured it.
That’s not so bad since we always found the trail but we were having very up-close and personal encounters with that brush. Remember we are hiking in shorts and t-shirts so our skin is ripe for the scratching. At times I felt like a hula dancer, swaying right to avoid the bush on the right and then left to avoid the cactus. Then, there were the tall bushes under which I had to duck.
Did I make it? Did I escape unscathed? Heck, no, I’ve got scratches all over me. I didn’t think that any of them had broken the skin and had left only white lines where they scraped me. Was I ever wrong. When I got into the shower, I knew where every last scrape was. Yeo - u - ch. Silly me, why didn’t I put on the shirt and pants legs which were in my pack? Huh? and ruin the warmth of the sun on my legs and arms? Sometimes I’m not so smart. But, then, you knew that.
As we wiggled through the bushes trying to avoid the cactus on the right and the prickly bush on the left, oops there’s a cholla right in front of me, my mind was on the Beatles ‘Hippy Hippy Shake.’
Well, now, you wiggle to the left
You wiggle to the right
Do the Hippy Shake Shake
With all of your might
We found a nice flat boulder with a bit of shade for lunch and enjoyed relaxing in the outback.
Further on, we wended our way through the boulders and brush to where we were supposed to turn left to head back to the trailhead. It’s about 2:30 and we met a couple here who were in their early 50’s. They had no map, little water and wanted to know if we knew where the marina was. A marina in the Superstition Mts?In the desert here? But, yes there is a marina on the other side of the mountains - but it was at least 3 miles away. And there are lots of ups and downs in those 3 miles. Believe me, we know, we’ve hiked that trail. But they were already 3 miles out, the marina was 3 more miles and that would mean that they would have 9 miles still ahead of them before they got back to their car and it was already at 2:30.
Not my choice and, they decided it was not their choice either for they turned around and followed us back to the trailhead.
Our reward for the end of the hike was an ice cream cone at a local tourist trap where we got this neat shot of Flatiron (right in the middle), one of the more formidable mountains in the Superstitions which seemingly rise out of nowhere.
11.5 1557’
But lakes, lakes? In Arizona? Sure enough. Usually people think of deserts with cacti, brush and rattlesnakes. But, Arizona has lots of other ecological and geographical systems. And, today, we’re going to hike around a lake - well, actually it is a reservoir with a marina, marshes, wading birds, fish, picnic and camping areas and - guess what? a neat trail which circles part of the lake and then heads up and over a rocky hill to another part of the lake. 
Saguaro Lake was formed by the Stewart Mountain Dam, which was completed in 1930. It was the last of the 4 reservoirs to be built on the Salt River (which sometimes has water which Phoenix wants to use). Several days ago we traveled down into the Salt River Canyon, today, we’re upriver and hiking around one of its lakes.
