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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