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| View of Mc Dowell Mountain Range |
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| Typical House Along Our Walk |
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| Rock Strewn Trail |
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| Me, Again |
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| Saguaro Cactus |
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| Trail Signs For Neophyte Hikers Like Us |
Up at 5:00, must be the excitement of our drive to Sedona and hiking in the Red Rock Canyon and Oak Creek Canyon the next two days. Claire has made sure we have everything we need for our brief journey, coolers, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, water, cold beer, etc. It was pitch black when I got up but it's lightening up, at 6:20 and we should be in the car and on our way by 7:00. It should be a two hour drive, depending on how many stops we make.
Yesterday we(me) decided to take it easy and we took an easy five mile hike in the Mc Dowell mountains, about ten minutes from Claire's house, so it's an easy access to various trail heads, all in the Scottsdale area. We took what was called the Quartz Trail, from the 104th Street Trail head. Again, each trail head has a often modern looking building, with bathrooms and information on the trails for hikers, as well as a parking lot and well marked trails. Scottsdale has done an amazing job for the hiking enthusiasts.
The Quartz Trail was quite different from yesterday's rigorous climb up the side of Cave Creek mountain, hair pin turns and all. This trail wended through a gulch or gully, something out of a Western TV show from the 1950's. I expected to see Tom Mix, Roy Rodgers, Gene Autry, or Lash LaRue to come riding by. It was mostly flat until the last half mile, with low cliffs on each side of the ravines, a dry creek bed, with our trail following it. On either side, perched above the hiking trail were million dollar homes, most with swimming pools, some of the infinity type, decks, barbecue areas and hot tubs. The views in both the morning or evenings must be spectacular. So, must of our hike we hiked on rocky, sandy paths, up and down slight hills, with houses off in the distance on both sides, perhaps 50 to 75 yards away. And often trails led down from the houses to our trail, access points for the neighborhood. We started to climb up towards Taliesin Overlook, a vista we had hiked to two days ago but from the other side. We stopped about twenty minutes short of the Overlook because we had to get back to Dot's house by 10:30, to see Pat and Sean Mullen off to Las Vegas. We did talk to some mountain bikers, neat guys, who said the weather was amazing for this time of year. Our walk back was just as easy, though warmer, and we were out a little over two hours.
We went over to Dot's, had some breakfast, and talked with Pat and Sean until about 11:30 when they left for home in Las Vegas. Sean had just gotten a new used car, a Volkswagen GTI Hatchback, which he loves driving. We stayed at Dot's to help her grind up nuts by hand for the potica we will be making when we come back from Sedona and move from Claire's to her house for our last few days.
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| My Nephew, Sean's, New Wheels |
We got back to Claire' about 1:00 and spent the afternoon much like yesterday, me watching the Masters and napping, Evie and Claire outside by the pool, enjoying the water and weather. The end of the Masters was exciting, with Adam Scott winning in a playoff. After he won, I jumped into the pool, took a shower, started packing for our trip to Sedona tomorrow, and then sat outside in the cooling pool deck, having freshly squeezed grapefruit with vodka, with Evie and Claire. The good, good, life.
For dinner, the gals made a salad, with ham, cheese, eggs, and guacamole, and I grilled asparagus and mushrooms outside. It was just the right meal for last night, easy but seemingly healthy and good. The vodka and grapefruit juice certainly helped. We watched The Good Wife, read some and went to be early, as we are off to Sedona early tomorrow morning.
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