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| Climbing Up The Gateway Loop |
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| Fields of Cactus |
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| A Typical Desert Vista |
It's just about 7:00 and I have been up since 5:45, another clear morning, about 54º outside, perfect for sleeping, a high of 82º later in the day. I have been planning our hikes for the next couple of days around this area, then on Monday, we are hoping to drive north to Sedona, spend the night, and hike around Red Rock Canyon, with its many trails. Today, we are hopping on a trail just east of where my mother in law lives, called Lost Dog, just over four miles, fairly flat from what I can tell but we could be surprised. We will pick up my brother in law Pat, around 8:00, and the trail should be only about ten minutes away.
Yesterday, I was up early, about 5:30 as I was taking my brother in law to the Sky Harbor Airport, here in Phoenix. We had to leave by 6:00 and it was an easy drive of 20 minutes, as traffic was just starting to get heavy when I was heading home at 6:30. When I returned, we decided to hike in the Mc Dowell Sonoran Nature Preserve, about ten minutes from Claire and Henry's house. We had hiked part of the Gateway Loop with Henry last year, so we were determined to do it all this year. As we started up, we asked a veteran how long it might take us to do the loop, close to 4.5 miles, total. He answered, most likely one and a half hours if you walk it. Well, two and a half hours later, we were back, from a rigorous hike up to the Gateway Saddle, about 1.8 miles, then a delicate, even difficult walk down from there, over two miles, of dodging rocks, crevasses, sand, so that you had to be on guard the entire way down. It took us an hour and twenty minutes to the Gateway Saddle, going counter clockwise, an hour and ten minutes to return, a long down hill, to the parking area. It was a spectacular walk, every view a Kodak moment, so it was hard to decide when to take a picture. We obviously stopped quite often, to rest or take pictures, were in no hurry to finish so we really did enjoy the walk, despite the fact it took much longer than anticipated. Hey, we are retired...we have time
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| Wildflowers |
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| Resting at Saddle Back |
The rest of the afternoon, we sat around the pool with Claire, talked, read some, sun bathed, napped, jumped in both the hot tub and pool, all the sorts of things you do when you are on vacation. Claire volunteered to pick up Pat, our brother in law, who was flying in from Vegas to see all of us, just so Evie and I could relax and enjoy the sun and pool...what a sister in law! She got home around 4:00, and we had a beer, got dressed and went over to my mother in law's house for a corned beef and cabbage dinner. Fortunately, we ate outside on her patio as the house was warm and odoriferous from the cooking. The meal was great, lots of vegetables, all the cabbage you wanted, and there was even left over corned beef. We took a short walk after dinner, just as the sun was beginning to set, sat around the kitchen table with Dot and Pat and talked, mostly about where we were going to hike on Friday, finally making up our mind to hike somewhere near by so Pat did not have to get up too early, the problem when you hike with someone else...you cannot always go by your clock. We left about 9:00, watched some TV, then read and went to bed, tired and achy, with sore muscles and feet from our hike.
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| Dinner with Pat, Dot, and Claire |
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