Beauty of Seven Falls

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Wild Burro Trail in the Tortolita Mountains



Hello all!  Our hiking season has finally begun.  We were beginning to think that the late monsoon rains and following very hot temperatures were along with high humidity would keep us sidelined forever.  Thank goodness the weather has finally started to cooperate with outdoor sports.


We always start the season with shorter easy hikes and that was the case for this one.  We hiked right here in our own backyard at Dove Mountain.  Dove Mountain is part of the beautiful Tortolita Mountains which boasts over 30 miles of trails.  The trails include classic Sonoran Desert terrain, rugged ridges, diverse wildlife, historic ruins and signs of prehistoric inhabitants.

                             

We had a very nice group for a first hike – 11 in total!   JoAnn, Jim, Jorge, Connie, Judy, Dave, Ernie, Danielle, Eugenia, Chun and of course yours truly.  We gathered at our regular meeting spot and after greeting each other with hugs and hellos, we decided who would be driving and started over to the trailhead.

We hiked part of the Wild Burro Trail. The part of the trail we hiked is a lot of sandy wash – which is good conditioning for our legs at the start of the hiking season.  We really enjoyed being back on the trails again and the weather was great!  When we started out it must have been about 70 degrees.  The sun was very high though and we knew it wouldn’t be long before it heated up so we tried to keep up a steady pace.  We took lots of breaks for drinks so we could stay hydrated.  

Front row:  Ernie, Judy, Eugenia, JoAnn, Danielle
Second row:  Dave, Connie, Jorge, Chun and Jim
We would only be hiking about 4 miles on this first one, and it only took us about 1 ½ hours to reach the halfway point.  We decided to make the halfway point the remnants of the old line shack along the trail.  A line shack was a small cabin built on the open range where cowboys could take shelter while tending cattle or other duties associated with working on a large ranch.  Along with the ruins of the line shack was also a concrete structure they used to hold water for the cattle.  All the ladies decided to climb in and call it our hot tub. 



After relaxing for a bit at the line shack we headed back up the trail to the parking lot where we enjoyed a light lunch and admired the crested saguaro in the parking lot.  It is so easy to take the beauty surrounding us for granted, but being the Novice Hiker this is all still very new and exciting to me.  



Going along these trails and seeing all the different desert plants - saguaro, prickly pear, cholla, brittlebush (which were in bloom) and so many  others – too many to name.  We always keep a sharp eye out for wildlife, but didn’t see much on this hike – just a few bunnies.  Jorge had a good time talking with the birds though.  He can really get them going with his whistling. 



Our first hike ended with everyone wanting more – as it should be.  We can hardly wait for next week.

Oh well, short hike.....short blog.  LOL


See you on the trails…..




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