Good Day for a Hike

 February 1, 2013
Hike Jan. 26


    On went the hiking boots (yea! I could get my broken ankle foot in my boots), the hats, vests, suntan lotion.  Out came the hiking sticks, back packs, water, snacks, more snacks, snake bite kit and Alleve.  We were going on a 2 1/2 mile hike, you would think it was at least a 10 mile hike by our preparations.  I was just hoping I could make it, after my months of sitting around with broken ankle!!!!

We drove to Lost Dutchman State Park.  There is a $7 day fee. 
By the way, for those of you not familiar with my blog, I try to include links to places, things, events, etc that I am posting about.  Much easier than my having to explain everything, when you can click on the link and read as much info as you want.  So if you see words in red, you can click on them from further info.

Happy Hikers!

Becki looking happy before the hike.

 Becki was not entirely convinced she was going to enjoy this hike, but she was a trooper and came along with us.

Becki is great at posing us for pictures so we don't have the normal "here we are on the trail, here we are at dinner" etc.  These two are supposed to be just "head" in the scenery.  Afraid the picture taker needs some lessons.  Will need to do some cropping for the scrapbook.  Should the title be "talking heads"?

 When I read about this hike it said it was easy with only a 500' elevation change.  Somehow, it seemed like that elevation change happened all at one time.  I was huffing and puffing and took lots of "oh, let's look at the scenery" (wink, wink) breaks.   Now, mind you, the scenery was amazing the higher we got.

 We made it to about the half way mark.  Becki and I found a big rock that was made for sitting and resting.

 At this point, Al decided he was going to go exploring to the big rocks in the distance.  There was a path, but he did not have any takers.  So I kissed him goodbye, he gave me the car keys, and off he went.

He is in this picture, but blends in with the brush and cactus.  Going to have to buy him a bright red hat!  I remembered my Follow Friends app on the phone and found him.

He is the pink dot!  At least we could find his body if need be!

There were a couple of tricky, downhill spots to maneuver through.  Becki is not a fan of heights and drop-offs, so she had a few moments of wishing she were somewhere else, but she pulled it together and made it down.  I was very grateful I had my hiking books and hiking stick.  The boots really made me feel more confident with my ankle.   When looking back, I spotted Al on his way down the trail behind us, so knew I was not going to have to report him missing and try to claim the insurance money.  He caught up with us and we finally got to the easy part of the trail and enjoyed more of the scenery.  Somehow, we missed the trail to our parking lot, but ended up in the lot one over.  Important thing was it had a bathroom.  Al, being the good scout that he is, ran over and got the car.  By this time I had a toe rubbing and was ready to take my boot off.

They snapped this picture as we were heading out and I needed to jump out and get a picture of the park sign.  One boot on, one boot off!