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| Hiking | 4.33 Miles |
611 AEG |
| | Hiking | 4.33 Miles | | | |
| 611 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Tue, Feb 21. I decided with the slight cloud cover it would be a good day to film my little piece of Ireland, Lookout Mountain Preserve. My Ultra 22 films best in filtered light thus this partly/mostly cloudy afternoon should work well.
I parked at the bottom of the hill per usual and hiked counterclockwise heading west, north, south, north, east, north, west, north, east... follow that  . I basically did the circle of the western humps and then finished off the rest of the circumference. Quite honestly, I didn't think I would take as many pictures or movies as I did but since I've never done a video here  , I thought I would go all out and tried not to miss anything as is evidenced by the nearly 250 photos/movies. I was also working on photo techniques and settings plus I had my main camera with me.
It was absolutely lovely when the sun was out but that wasn't much really. I checked out the smell of the mistletoe on one of the few trees close to the trail and yep, smells like verbena to me. The groundcover seems to have gotten thicker since the last time I was here. But at least, I now know what most of it is: Curve-Nut Combseed. I got some clearer pictures of it with my camera too. The other plant mixed in with it is the Narrowleaf Popcorn.
I hiked around the southwestern saddle and headed north along the eastside where I spotted scattered Desert Hyacinth or as Joe edited (Dichelostemma capitatum) and per usual, hard to photograph. I hiked around the other side (west) of the Humps. As I approached the first saddle, below me there was quite a bit of Scorpionweed scattered about with a couple taller/thicker patches. Now tell me, why can't these flowers be above you for easier photo-taking? I also noticed Desert Indianwheat. Once I got over to the southern hump, the area below the trail was covered in Fiddleneck; hard to photograph though. When I rounded this hump and headed east, the Scorpionweed showed up again but in isolated plantings with a few small groupings.
The views were not crystal clear but I could see how green it was on North Mountain and Shaw Butte  . I continued east and this is the last I would see of the sun. I encountered a few hikers on this side of the mountain, several of them tourists. I noticed on the upper trail a family and wondered if they got off trail as it's pretty steep if you choose to come down from there. (It's interesting that if you look at the MAP view, the Circumference Trail is all over the place, including where these people were - see Google maps). My views to the McDowells weren't clear so I could only get mediocre pictures.
The usual suspects of other flowers were out including Brittlebush. I'm still wondering if most of them will bloom at one time or are we going to get smatterings here and there? I'm hoping for the group bloom of course. On the east side, I took pictures of the various groups of Pinchushion cactus as there's quite a few of them here. On the northeast side of the mountain I noticed a lot of that Rattlesnake Weed in various stages already. I passed by the parking lot and continued west finishing off my little northwestern loop back to Tonto. On this north side I spotted a Hummingbird and Cottontail.
Did you notice that one word is missing from this trip report.... poppies. None  .
And like I said, I took a lot of photos, as usual for flower IDs and directional photos/movies. I just wanted to fully document this hike like it was an educational one and hopefully, I won't feel the need to do it again. I'll be anxious to see the movies as I haven't looked yet. My goal is to finish the Union Peak videos first.
March 3rd update, come see my Ireland:
Part 1 - [ youtube video ]
Part 2 - [ youtube video ]
Part 3 - [ youtube video ]
Part 4 - [ youtube video ]
Part 5 - [ youtube video ]
WATCH: 1:48-4:23PM, 3.95 mi, 1498-1775 elev. 123 avg bpm/159 max burning 908 calories. Temp 62.5 mostly cloudy, 59% humidity. HAZel RS 2:43, 9 break, 1.69mph (keeping this off my running logs since it was an all inclusive filming hike). |
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Wildflowers Observation Light
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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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