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| Hiking | 14.60 Miles |
4,210 AEG |
| | Hiking | 14.60 Miles | 7 Hrs 30 Mns | | 1.95 mph |
| 4,210 ft AEG | | | | |
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| partners | | We left Mesa around 5:30 to get down to the trailhead by 8:30. The weather was a cool 75 at the trailhead as we began our march up Old Baldy Trail. It seemed relatively busy for a Saturday morning, and everyone was friendly. We ran into some serious women athletes speed walking up the trail and jogging back down. Wouldn't want to meet them in a dark alley.
We got to Josephine Saddle with little effort but took a wrong turn. I'm not sure if it was the ½ mile of nothing but descent or the red circle with the white rectangle in it, but we turned back around and got back on the right path. Some call it the Path of Peace, we called it Old Baldy Trail.
The ascent to the next trail was strenuous and exhilarating. There were quite a few people on the path and quite a few lizards as well. I found the lizards less friendly, but much more accommodating to get around on the narrow parts of the trail.
I got to the next saddle and waited for my partner Chris (who is a huge Cardinals fan by the way). I ate something crunchy and drank something wet and took pictures of things surrounding me. There were a few burned out trees and I felt sorry for them because I'm sure nobody bothers to take their pictures and they probably feel neglected because of that. So I continued that trend by avoiding them with my camera.
The hike to the top was rocky and there were parts I could have fallen off and gotten seriously scraped up. When I got to the top I noticed it was windy. There was already a guy up there and he was wearing an orange shirt. He was sitting very still and I found that very disturbing. I walked by him slowly in case he went ninja on me or something. He didn't move. I sat down for a few minutes.
A squirrel came up to me. He couldn't talk to me, but he wrote a message in the sand that he was being held captive by the man in the orange shirt. I nodded to give him (or her) the message that I understood.
I took out my camera and took a picture of the squirrel to email to the folks at PETA. It was then that orange shirt moved. He looked at me, I looked at the squirrel, the squirrel looked at the peanut in my hand. It was a stand-off.
It was then that Chris showed up. I looked at orange shirt and he went back to non-moving mode. The squirrel ran and hid. So I continued to eat my peanuts.
We stayed up there for about a half an hour enjoying the views, enjoying the weather, enjoying the Squirrel MMA fights.
As we began our decent, I noticed it getting warmer and was reminded that the desert is lurking near.
The Super loop trail was very scenic and I took most of my pictures there. It seemed like we walked around the mountain as opposed to climbing up one side of it like the old baldy trail. I guess that's because we did. But we did miss the company of the people and the lizards on the backside of the mountain, well maybe just the lizards.
There were many times on that trail where we could look up to see the peak of Mt. Wrightson. It definitely felt like an accomplishment that we had gone that high. But, at the same time it felt like we were losers because it was taking forever to get off the mountain. So, if you are prone to those feelings, you might want to take Old Baldy back to the parking lot.
I had a great time with Stiller (a huge Kurt Warner fan) and highly recommend him as a hiking partner. Don't judge him by his GPS! |
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