Just a few days upon our return, we were invited by a friend and his friend for a major hike in the
Superstition Mountains at the
trailhead (about 45 minutes from Fountain Hills). I had been so tired of the flatness of Florida, that I had asked for a hike for my birthday, and I got one. A 5 1/2 hour, 12-mile hike. Oy! But it was absolutely beautiful. Exactly what the mental doctor ordered.
Our first wildlife encounter was a tarantula that Michael almost stepped on.
Next up was a small, red snake that Michael actually picked up, but I wasn't fast enough to catch a photo of, and a frog. Near the end, we (JD, really) had a close call with a rattlesnake. I looked up when JD jumped back and knew immediately what had happened. Sure enough, JD had heard the tail rattle and had gotten out of the way before the snake attacked.
We lived here for 16 years and hiked a lot, and this is only the 2nd time that's happened. The rattlesnakes here are not really aggressive. They warn you, you get out of the way, and they slither off. Still heebie-jeebie though. When you have to worry is in the spring when the baby rattlers are out. They don't know how much venom to put out yet, don't have rattles yet, and can be much worse than their parents.
The trail was long but pretty easy (although we forgot about the fact that everything has spikes or thorns). The only annoyance was that we crossed a riverbed with loose boulders over and over again. It was like a
hash in that we had to follow markers to tell us where to go - in this case a bunch of much-appreciated cairns. But they weren't always where we needed them (or blended in with the rest of the boulders), so we were quite happy that Robert had downloaded the waypoints from the 'net.
Note how dusty our car was after 5 hours in the lot (this is all over our TVs too).
I have to admit, I'm rather sore, and I've never been so happy to get my hiking boots off (they are too small). But it was worth it. Yes, those are birthday socks, saved for after the hike.
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