Weekend of hiking

“I like this place and could willingly waste my time in it.”
― William Shakespeare

We wore poor little Pip's toes off this weekend. But oh he loved it.

We spent Saturday up on the Salt river. We saw the eagles nest. But not the eagles. We hiked all over the area and had such a grand day. Pip just loves going to the river. I think it's his favorite. He loves to dip his toes in and wade about. He doesn't go in to far though, touches his belly and he's out.

It was an ideal day for hiking. We soaked in the quiet and the beauty of the area and came home thoroughly exhausted. Of course we had gone bowling in the morning so it was a very full day all in all and it was a pleasant tired.

Sunday we got even more adventuresome. We decided to do the nine mile loop from the 1st water trail head in the Superstitions. Terrain is definitely a bit rougher there. But we had super weather again for our excursion. Pip led me the whole way. He always take point and at times he just sort of pulls me along. Sometimes at the most inopportune moments. But he does love the trail. He is getting good about signals and seems to understand left and right. I tell him to take the left fork and he does almost every time. He is starting to understand that when I say PICTURES he's to come back and sit by me, not keep tugging and making my pictures study in blur. He definitely understands take point and takes off down the trail ahead of me.

We did almost 10 miles yesterday, with a lot of it up and down. Saw some awesome vistas and rock formations. We only saw one other person in the morning. Did see a few more as were heading back in. But solitude for the most part. We are slowly building up our trail endurance. Though the hills can take it out of you rather quickly. We are already trying to decide what trail we will be doing next.

I did manage to get some crocheting done this weekend. Almost have the doily redone in colors I like much better. Just have 2 rnds on it to go. I saved that project for in the car when traveling about. I worked on another small design in the evenings. I should finish that one up today.

Here are shots from our Saturday Excursion. I will post pictures of yesterdays tomorrow.

This is the veiw from one of the parking lots. Unfortunely the trail was closed to protect the eagles nesting up there. Will do this walk later this year when it opens back up.

This is the furtherest point we went to at one end of the river. We headed back into the desert from here to get back to our starting point.

Birds nests in the bluff across the river

Pip and I decked out in our trail gear.

We returned to our starting point and then headed down the river from there for a little ways. This is the other end of the river where we ended our days river jaunt.  It was starting to get late as you can tell from the afternoon colors and long shadows. We will go further this direction another day.  

Afternoon sun on the hills as we were headed back 

As I said Glorious Day!!!