Day 51 - 2nd Starr Pass Area Hike

This morning I spent time at McDonalds working on grading my student's work.  After that I wanted to go on a hike and see if my toe I irritated the other day with my hiking shoes will be ok with my hiking boots.

My plan was to go on a hike up to 4 miles or 2 hours.  The Starr Pass Trailhead I tried the other day had other trails that looked interesting.  It was 10:30 am.

The trails I tried gave me much better elevation for some views of the city and surrounding mountains.

On the trail I found an interesting saguaro formation with arms all growing on one side.

 

It looks a lot different close up when you can see the details.

The formation of the cactus against the desert background and the partly cloudy sky makes for an interesting subject.

The yellow desert poppies are now in full bloom.  Spring is a wonderful time to appreciate color in the desert.

Here is a closeup.

There are plenty of rocks with copper in them in the trail.

Another flowering bush.

I like this trail that there is better scenery than the one the other day.

The ever changing scenery.

I met this man and dog on the trail.  There were many hikers and just as many bikers on the trail today.  This man was walking his bike which is very unusual.  The dog on a rope and walking the bike was more unusual.

He said that while he was riding his bike this dog started to follow him on his ride. He stopped and checked the dog and there was no tag.  He came upon a residential area and asked about the dog and was told that dogs are often abandoned in the area.  They gave him a rope and here he was walking the dog back to the trailhead.

The dog was very social and well behaved and also well nurished.  The biker was going to bring her into the vet to have it checked for a micro chip.  If he doesn't find an owner he may keep her, although his job isn't the best for keeping a dog.  As I pet the dog and checked her he asked if I wanted her.  I told him that its a very nice dog but I'm traveling the country on a car.

As they left I couldn't brlieve how well behaved and social the dog was.

In the distance the pass to the left is the one I walked through the other day.

This is the mountain range I walked around the other day too, returning through the pass between the two peaks to the right.

Someone made this table and chairs from rocks on top of one of the hills.

My hike took me down and around back to the trailhead.

Eventually I came across this brook that runs between the park and a golf course.

The track below got messed up with the gps signal making a long straight line.  The two ends of the red line should have connected.  So the distance is just about 3 miles and it took 1.5 hours and only an elevation gain of just over 300 feet.  The good news was that my toe with a bandage over the area that was wearing worked and I am ready for a longer hike. 

Here is my track on AllTrails:
http://alltrails.com/tracks/trail-no-trail-trail-road?utm_campaign=mobile-iphone

Later in the day we had some showers in the area.

Sunset looking east.

The sunsets are amazing most days here.

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com