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| Hiking | 4.90 Miles |
1,440 AEG |
| | Hiking | 4.90 Miles | 4 Hrs | | 1.23 mph |
| 1,440 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | After eating, maybe a little too much, on Thanksgiving, I needed to get out and walk off some of those excess calories. I was supposed to take my Niece out on Saturday but I had a scheduled photo shoot at Tortilla Flat so Miah agreed that Friday would be a good choice. Miah is from Wisconsin but is going to school in Albuquerque and visits with us here in Arizona for the holiday.
I recommended that we hike to Fremont Saddle and we should get an early start, both for the sunrise scenes and also to avoid the expected crowds that always show up for the holiday weekend.
The early start got delayed a bit (someone kinda slept in) but we signed in at the trailhead at 08:05 and the parking lot was almost full by now. The weather was comfortable so layers were quickly shed even though there were high clouds to block the majority of the sun. It was a scenic hike up the trail and layers of haze still hung around the distant ridges behind us to highlight the hills and valleys.
I chose to wear my heavy backpack containing first aid, survival stuff, flashlights, etc which may have been too heavy for my new knees and by the time we reached the Saddle, I was feeling the stiffness from the additional weight. Miah and I sat on some rocks and took in the scenery around us as we consumed some snacks and enjoyed the beauty of it all. The crowds were already filtering in and milling around breaking the spell that had been cast so it was time to gear-up and hit the trail back to the parking lot.
The hike down was like a traffic jam... there were small groups and large groups, kids and old folks (like me) and numerous dogs, all heading up to claim a piece of the quickly fading sights & serenity that Fremont Saddle has to offer. My legs were really getting to feel like rubber bands coming down so the parking lot was looking pretty good and we signed out almost four hours from our sign-in time. The upper lot was, by now, full as well as the lower lot and the horse trailer parking areas  Down the road, at the Carney Spring lot, there was another parking fiasco... as hikers were fighting for parking space so they could hike to an overly crowded Wave Cave and the Peralta Road was a steady stream of cars heading in...  Note to self: Don't do this again on a holiday weekend... ](https://hikearizona.com/dex2/images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall")
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Wildflowers Observation Isolated
Noted a few red Fairy Dusters alongside the trail. |
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| On every trip into the Superstitions, I find another Gold Mine. Today the mine was filled with Memories. I can not wait for the next trip. |
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