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| Hiking | 6.77 Miles |
725 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.77 Miles | 3 Hrs 7 Mns | | 2.31 mph |
| 725 ft AEG | 11 Mns Break | | | |
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| Partners |
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[ show ]
| partners | | Linda invited me to the hike with Cathy and Kelly, thank you. It was a breezy start for sure and that breezy would become brisk from time to time throughout our hike. The area was very green of course with a couple greens. I danced by the large mirror of the equestrian corral... to the girls bemusement. I did it on the way back too.
Our main challenge of the day was crossing the creek. We walked upstream a bit, Kelly perplunked a large rock so that we would have two to use which worked great. We admired the stately saguaros and checked out the interesting trough with large pipe inside of it before veering east on the Military Trail. We stopped to admire a sea of phyllite. On the distant hills the brittlebush looks like ground cover. It's gonna be a golden spring. Saguaros, phyllite and brittlebush groundcover would catch our attention off and on during the hike. We enjoyed the smoothness of the Flat Rock Trail where at the saddle we encountered the first hikers of the day.
We headed south and east on the Quartz Trail keeping an eye on the outcropping in the distance. And with Kelly, what does one do with an outcropping above the trail? Of course, you climb it so Linda and I followed suit. It was nothing major but girls gotta have fun. As we got down we encountered another group of hikers before reaching the Slate Trail. This a great little trail as you feel like you're walking on flat lava; even though its phyllite which you can see around you in several areas along the way. The phyllite pieces are part of the ground here; so much so that even the grass can't seem to grow through it. Pretty soon Linda says "bike" and I turn around and that biker is quite a ways back... how did she hear it? She did that a couple times today.
Before heading back across the creek, Cathy took us to the Lake. It's kind of an inlet, fairly shallow but long. And then we checked out the big colored rocks (mostly black or green) in the dry creek bed. But now we had to get across the creek again so we went to the same area we had crossed earlier. Before going back to the trailhead Cathy took us up Louis Menk Nature Trail to the Overlook. It's a pleasant little climb and has some pretty great 360 views from the top. It was quite windy so we didn't stay long. We ventured around and back down for the last little bit back to the Trailhead.
And now on to the Grotto Cafe where we finished off our day with good company and food and fun ambience. |
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For me, sometimes it's just as much about the journey as the destination.
Oh, and once in awhile, don't forget to look back at the trail you've traveled. |
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