I have reluctantly stayed away from the Pickle Ball courts and substituted hiking with the parks hiking group on Mondays and Wednesdays. We tried Shuffleboard and gone to a few movies, usually on $5.00 Tuesdays. Lori has been to the pool a few times for Aqua-size classes, limited by a persistent cold, and is hiking with a few other ladies and their dogs. We have also been to a Yoga class or two and Lori tried an Essentrics class. We purchased tickets to see the 5 concerts in our park and last week we went to see the Southwest Surfers who played primarily Beach Boys songs and yesterday we saw a group who did a Chicago rendition. Both were great. We have three more concerts in March.
I have also joined the parks Photography group and we have a new leader this year who is focused on going out on photo shoots. We have been on 2 shoots so far with more planned. One was to Boyce Thompson Arboretum (BTA) and another to the Salt River to hunt for the wild horses. Lori and I purchased memberships to BTA and we went there one day to take a tour of the Pickett Post mansion. I have now been to BTA 3 times and have joined their photography class which meets each month. Last week we went to the Desert Botanical Garden in Scottsdale to see the Electric Desert exhibit. Lots of other daily activities like the Mesa Swap Meet and currently I am in the process of washing and waxing the rig from roof to tires. I hate that job but the alternative is to pay $3-400 to have someone else do it.
The weather this year has definitely not been normal. Our travels through Texas was either stifling hot and humid or cold and rainy. We had a couple weeks reprieve in early Dec when we arrived in Tucson but the last part of Dec and the first 3 weeks of Jan have been wetter and cooler than normal. I do watch the news and given the weather that the rest of the continent has been experiencing I know I am not getting any sympathy. The last 10 days has actually been closer to normal so the furnace doesn't have to be turned on in the morning and the evening walks don't require any extra layers. Now this is what we signed up for.
Speaking of furnaces, I got a call from our alarm company last week letting me know that the Low Temp Sensor had gone off. I gave our friend Don, who has been checking the house for us, a call and he went over and checked the house. He was greeted by a cool 43 degrees. He tried the furnace and, while the fan would come on, as soon as it tried to lite it would shut down. Almost sounded the same as the problem we were having with the trailers furnace back in December. He ended up calling a repair service and they discovered that the exhaust pipe had frozen shut. A few good wacks loosened the ice and we now had heat. Within a day I had received an email from some of the neighbours in our development and it turns out that a few others had the same problem. The issue was the extreme cold weather brought on by the Polar Vortex however a contributing factor may be the design of the exhaust pipe resulting in condensation forming then freezing and blocking the pipe. Looks like I may have to do a redesign this summer.
Well enough of all that. Here are a few pictures from my first 2 hikes. As I watch the Super Bowl I will do a few more blog posts with less verbiage and more pictures of some of our outings.
Speaking of the Super Bowl, I would be interested in hearing back from some fellow Canucks watching the game from the Great White North regarding the commercials they are seeing. I was watching one of the Sunday morning news shows and the ever humble leader and servant of the American people was claiming credit for forcing the evil empire to the north to show the US commercials and not replace them with Canadian Tire commercials. The one Trump claim that most Canadians will applaud.
The hiking group meets at the clubhouse and leaves promptly at 8:00 so its an early and often cold start to the morning. I set the alarm for 6:15 so I can have breakfast and a few cups of coffee so all the body's systems are awake and functioning. Once out on the trail the morning sun quickly results in layers being taken off and the reluctance of getting up at such an ungodly hour is soon replaced by the exhilaration of the beautiful scenery.
Jan 7, my first hike was the Hieroglyphic trail which is a relatively short, 2.8 miles, and easy, 568 ft elevation change. As we neared the top the canyon walls prevented the sun from reaching us and the trail was still muddy from the rain we had the previous day. This made clambering up the boulders somewhat treacherous so most of us found a place with safe footing and stayed put. Still some great views on a beautiful sunny Arizona morning.
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| Our motley crew. There is usually 20-25 of us. |
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| A gorgeous view to the south east of Gold Canyon |
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| One of many huge boulders balancing atop the canyon wall. Looks like the slightest breeze could send it toppling down. |
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| Another great view looking down the canyon. Phoenix is just to the right behind the ridge. |
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| Some of our more adventurous hikers clambering over boulders. The bottoms of their boots slick with wet sand and clay. I pulled up a boulder and stayed put. |
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| Would like to take this hike on a sunny day. The colours would be breathtaking. |
On Jan 16 we headed up to the Massacre Grounds trail. A bit longer at 5.8 miles and significantly more elevation with 1135 ft gain. Our total time on the trail was almost 4 hours which included a stop at the top for a snack. Moving time was just over 3 hours. One thing about going on a hike with the group is that its not intended for photographers. The stops along the way are brief and usually intended to let laggards catch up and catch their breaths before another push onward. If I don't purposefully stop every so often to look around the only view I would get is that of the tops of my hiking boots. It is a good workout but I decided, after the first 2 hikes, that I wouldn't bring my camera and boy do I regret that decision. The views were fabulous with the blue skies and cloud formations making for stunning vistas. Luckily I had my phone so courtesy of what is really pretty good camera functionality in modern phones here are a few of the views.
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| We were up so high that it looked like we were almost at the same height as the low hanging cloud formations. |
Have to make a return trip with my camera.
With a name like Massacre Grounds you would think there has to be story to go with the name. And you would be right. In the early 1800's gold mining was quite active in the area furthered by the legend of the Lost Dutchman's Gold. To this day treasure hunters are still exploring the Superstition mountains in pursuit of the legendary lost gold but that is another story for another time. In the late 1840's a group of hispanic miners, this area had just become the Arizona Territory (formerly part of Mexico), were mining as much gold as possible so they could take it back to Mexico. The local Apache tribes were upset with the destruction of the land and, to make an example of them, attacked a group of miners and drove them up the mountain and over the edge of a cliff. Legend has it that they left one miner and one mule alive to go back and tell others. Thus the name, Massacre Grounds. In addition to the cliff there is a waterfall, at least by Arizona standards. Horseshoe falls its not. In actual fact it is little more than a trickle of water seeping out of the rocks and down the side of the mountain. But a waterfall sounds so much better.
Thats it for this one. Time to edit the pictures of some of my BTA expeditions between breaks in the game.
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