Jan. 7, Wed. "One does not hike to attain enlightenment, rather one hikes because he is enlightened." It was only 39 degrees and windy in the early morning as our hikers set out to hike the King’s Canyon Trail. King's Canyon Trail is the most direct route to reach Wasson's Peak, the highest summit at 4687 feet of the Tucson Mountains. It is located in the Saguaro National Park just north of the AZ Sonora Desert Museum. With many folks arriving after the holidays, we had over 40 hikers! It is always fun to start the season’s hike off by greeting friends again and meeting newcomers that share our interest in hiking out in the pretty landscape of the desert. By the time we headed out on the trail for our 2.4 mile hike, the sun had quickly warmed us up under a nice blue sky. We split into 2 groups and took the same loop but from different directions.
We had some nice views of the west valley and Kitt Peak in the distance as we climbed the tail. There was lots of evidence of old mines and stone buildings all along the trail. You can tell how warm it quickly got because I am in short sleeves.
We stopped for a break before heading back down. Ah.. it felt good to sit and soak up the sun for a while after steadily going uphill! I like going down better! As we thought we were heading back down, the leader realized we had taken a wrong turn and we had to turn around after our 1/2 mile mistake. So the hike was a bit longer than planned. That is okay, I just enjoyed being out there no matter how long we took.
Some of us split up and took an old service road back to the parking lot while the rest took the wash back. I think we made a big mistake. The old road was the worst rocky trail I have ever been on! We were all complaining. With our ankles constantly twisting over the rocks, it sure made us sore. I was sore the rest of the day and got out the ole Ben-Gay and Advil just to be able to sleep! But it was still a good hike and a beautiful day for it.
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