Take a Hike

Today we had lots of activity.  No fitness classes to attend until next Monday (except in the pool, and I'm hardly game for that when it's the middle of the afternoon and blazing hot, let alone first thing in the morning when it's cold).  So I went with Gerard on his rounds of the RV park - 2 rounds = 2-3/4 miles (4.4 km).

We came back to the RV for breakfast, then headed off on a hike in the Sonoran Desert Mountains, part of the Tucson Mountains.  The trailhead was a mile or more from our RV, across the road.  So we headed over there.  After getting to the Boulder Belt Trail, we headed east (right) and did the Flightpath Trail around one of the mountain tops (they're really kind of high hills).

Flightpath Trail is 1 mile in a loop, but it takes .2 miles to get there from a .4 mile long trail.  So double the .2 and the .4 (we had to walk it both ways) and we then hiked 3.2 miles on the trails + the mile or mile and a half each way to and from our RV.  That's about 5-6 miles, and it was getting pretty hot by the time we were done.  It was 80F today (27C), so pretty warm.

The name of the trail is apt because it is on the flightpath of all the planes heading into the Tucson airport.  For that matter, so is our RV park.  Fortunately, it's not a really busy airport, and things die down by early evening.

I think this is a Southwest Airlines plane.

If you enlarge this photo, you can see the plane in the middle of the air and the airport runway in the middle.

The trails were great.  It's so different from home.  It's all rock, scree and cacti all around.  The only wildlife we saw (thank goodness) was quail.  I tried to get a picture, but they were scared off from hearing us before we got to them.  And I didn't take my telephoto lens.  Next time.

I am so leary of the venomous snakes and insects here, that I was initially not thrilled to do this kind of hiking.  But my neighbour, Deb, said she used to be afraid too, but in 6 years she's been coming here and doing this, she's never seen a snake.  That helped...and we didn't see any.  Not even a little lizard.  Also, when we were in Sedona, Arizona, back in 2010 with John & Judy Hollinger, we did quite a bit of hiking around the red rock.  We didn't see any there either.  I guess they come out in the REALLY hot weather.  80F isn't hot enough for them.

This is our RV park with the palm trees all around, from the top of the mountain.  You'd have to enlarge the picture to see much of it.  Our RV is parked fairly close to the front part, but you can't see it.  We just know it's near the pickle ball courts in the front right.  The mountains in the background are the Rincon Mountains.

This is another kind of cactus bush type thing.

We think this is a baby Saguaro Cactus.  But I don't know for sure.

The Saguaros are so big, and kind of interesting.

This is the Arizona State tree - Palo Verde (meaning green stick).  Not only are the tiny leaves green, but so are the stems/trunk/bark.














We could see downtown Tucson and the Santa Carolina mountains in the background.

We made it back for lunch, then went to the pool for a quick dip.  We had had enough sun.  We then biked down to the nearest Redbox for a movie, about 2 miles away.

Enough exercise for the day.  I made dinner, and we relaxed for the evening, watching the movie.  Tomorrow's another day.