A late hike at the end of Meridian road

I was lazy over the weekend and didn't go for a hike, even though we had perfect weather. I had to go for a hike today. It was overcast. I went to the end of Meridian road because it's close and it was getting dark fast. When I got there it was eerily quiet. Maybe the clouds were soaking up any sound. I decided to try to get to the top of a hill there before it got too dark. You can see the hill in the center of this map. I measured how far I climbed with my GPS receiver. It sure seemed like more than 370 feet. Maybe that's because I was trying to hurry, though.

I got to the top just in time to get some pictures of the sunset. I didn't have a tripod, it was dark, I was breathing hard, and my heart was pounding, so most of them are blurred. Also, I set the camera to ISO 200 in an attempt to improve the shutter speed, so the pictures are grainy. Click here to see the pictures. BTW, there are only sunset pictures because it was too dark to take pictures of anything else.

In the second and third pictures, the group of tall buildings on the left is downtown Phoenix. The group of tall buildings on the right is ASU. I'm not sure what the two hills between the groups of tall buildings are. It would have helped if I could have figured out what road that is going between them. It was getting dark fast, though, so I started down as soon as I was done taking pictures. I might as well have stayed a while, though. It was dark long before I got back to the truck. No moon tonight, either. I didn't need it, though. Remember those clouds? The city lights reflecting from them provided at least as much light as a quarter moon. When I got back on the regular trail I had enough light to easily avoid the "calling cards" left by the dogs people take on hikes with them on that trail.

I was wishing I had my hiking stick while I was on the side of the hill. My balance doesn't seem to be as good in the dark. I gave the cacti a wide berth in case I teetered in their direction. I made a mental note to stay far far away from cliff edges when it's dark.