Turtle sighting! Denny needed to be home by 9 am so this is what we came up with. Marcos de Niza>Guadalupe Ridge>Beverly Canyon>Ridgeline>Javelina>Mormon Loop>Hidden Valley>National>Beverly>West Loop. Clouds and a breeze made for comfortable conditions. Rolled in at 0855.

As warm as it's been I decided to do a SM hike this morning while it was still cool. It also gave me a chance to check out the "upgrades" at Pima Canyon TH to see what a million of our tax dollars bought us.

The hike was good. Ran into Sam and Britt where the Old Man and the Guadalupe trails meet. They were out for a loop hike using Old Man and the Corona de Loma.

About an 1/8 of a mile from Buena Vista parking lot a group of 30 some hikers came down the trail towards me. I immediately did a 180 to head back, ahead of the group.

I haven’t been able to get out lately so an opportunity to knock out a few miles on a weekday evening fit the bill. The new speed bumps on the Pima trailhead road are worth $1 million each. They’re named Everest, K2, Lhotse, and Annapurna. I recommend caution while crossing them.

I’m not sure how I agreed to Guadalupe Ridge because I hate the climb. But I managed to not complain too much. Surprisingly after half a mile there wasn’t another person visible for the rest of the hike. Possibly because nobody used a headlamp due to the prolific moonlight.

I didn’t bother to check out Denny's pfancy new prison toilets despite nature’s call.

monday morning hike with fletch
started at 40th & san gabriel, took desert classic over to pima
checked out the lack of progress on the trailhead
up marcos de niza, down san gabriel ridge, west on desert classic, up young man, back on guadalupe ridge and down san gabriel
way too much on desert classic; we won't do that again
it would be better to go up beverly canyon if we wanted some extra

First elevation since getting pneumonia. Wasn't bad. Sure was hot. Ran into a baby rattler, I think it was a tiger. Couldn't have been 24" long, probably closer to 18". The rattle was so small that even though it was being shaken furiously there wasn't any more sound than if a fly was close to my head. If I hadn't seen movement I would have never even looked for it from the rattle. This was just off the Marcos De Niza trail.

fletch couldn't make it this morning
instead of doing our regular young man's loop, went all the way up guadalupe ridge to the high point
down to eagle pass and back on national
hadn't done this loop in ages
some fun boulders to negotiate above the young man's turnoff
another rescue in progress
looked like a lady had hurt her leg or ankle on national, just a quarter mile or so up from the dirt road
the gal had several people with her and was sitting up talking, so i kept going
i'm always a little surprised by the number of personnel and vehicles that respond to these
five or six guys coming up national, four vehicles at the end of the dirt road, and at least nine trucks, including three big fire engines at pima trailhead
a combo of guadalupe and phoenix personnel
maybe they don't know the exact nature of the call, or along for training, or just to get out?
nice hike
finished with lunch at los taquitos - love that place
too bad i'm not in the neighborhood on taco tuesday

Started early so I could get a parking spot. The city lights from Marcos de Niza are always awesome. Heard an owl and a pack of coyotes two of which I saw later towards the bottom of San Gabriel. I watched them traverse the desert for a while. Beautiful day for a hike. Noticed a few poppies growing but no flowers yet.

Started at the east parking lot (1390' elev), took the Marcos de Niza to the Guadalupe Ridge up to just over 2200' elevation. Then took the Young Man trail down to Ahwatukee (1450' elev), turned around and climbed back to the 2200' level again then down to Hidden Valley and back out again. I was bushed.

I still don't understand why the Hidden Valley via San Gabriel is called that seeing as most of it is on the Young Man trail instead of the San Gabriel ridge trail is more than a mile away.

Still hot and humid. Cutting down from the Guadalupe trail to the Pima wash (hidden valley) I was scrambling over and around boulders. I jumped down off about a 3 foot boulder into a small enclosed area. Only to find that I landed less than 3 feet from a sidewinder. Luckily it was a baby. Maybe 16 inches long. His rattle sounded like a angry bee. More of a buzz than a rattle. If it had been a parent the 3 feet might have been close to striking distance and I couldn't have quickly gotten away. His light colors blended with the sand so well.

Then 10 minutes later I rounded a boulder in Pima wash and there was a 2 to 2-1/2 foot snake a foot in front of me. From the stripes I believe it was a Patch-Nosed snake. He just sat there then suddenly whipped around and took off. He was really fast. Much faster than the baby sidewinder.

didn't feel right doing this hike without fletch
got going around 9:45 due to inertia and laziness
a few people on marcos de niza and one guy on young man's
otherwise had the trails to myself, even desert classic
did the loop part counterclockwise