since i had monday (mlk jr. day) off, i had such high hopes for a whole weekend of silly camping and hiking. however, i got a late start both saturday and sunday, so there was a lot of silly camping, but not much hiking. saturday night i stayed at oak flat campground near superior (i was planning on doing picketpost on saturday), and sunday night i stayed at lost dutchman.

i did get to do one of my all time favorites, the flatiron. i hadn't been up since my first time, back in december 2010. it was much easier this time around, but it is always a challenge.

i was close to the top, taking a break, when i ran into someone who was trying to warn me about "the wall." i thought that part was a piece of cake last time, and he recounted the description he found on "some" website. i was wearing my haz shirt - representing! so cool.

rain off and on did make the rocks on the right side of "the wall" a bit slick, so i went for using the tree instead. i was going to go to 5024, but i couldn't remember the exact route and it looked like there had been lots of foot traffic up there and i couldn't find the white dots anywhere. so back down i went.

fortunately, the rain didn't affect the slickrock basin at all. i was able to walk up and down without any difficulty through that section. i did lose the trail on the way down, just past the basin section. i ended up in the drainage with lots of foliage. sometimes it's not bad to hike a popular trail, so other folks were coming down after me, and i bushwhacked my way back up to the trail. i'm wondering though - has anyone taken the drainage all the way down? does it cliff out? it actually might be a fun diversion.

sunday night, the rain poured (mostly after going to bed). i had an alternate plan of doing picketpost on monday, but with the rain, that wasn't going to be possible. on monday morning, i packed up my wet camp, ate breakfast at the feedbag, and headed back to tucson.

pictures coming soon...