Saturday, November 21, 2009

Hackberry Mesa

I've been mentioning Hackberry Mesa a lot lately. I've been wanting to get to the top of it ever since I hiked out to Elephant Trunk Arch (that's what I decided to name it). First, a little background.

Earlier this week, I took about 70 pictures of Emily. I wondered if I had drained the battery. I checked the battery level indicator and it said that the battery was fully charged.

Now back to today. I spent a little longer on lunch than I had planned, so when I got out to the Superstition Wilderness I walked quickly to Garden Valley. I only stopped to get out a fresh water bottle and to turn on tracking mode with my SPOT. I didn't take any pictures. I have lots of pictures along that trail already, and it was the middle of the day, too.

I got out to Garden Valley pretty quickly. There's a stock tank on the far side of Garden Valley, and that's where I left the trail. There was a wonderful breeze at the top of the dirt hill on the side of the tank and I stood there for a minute to cool off. The view of Geronimo Head and Battleship Mountain looked nice so I decided to take my first picture, but I couldn't. The battery was dead. Now I know that the battery charge indicator is totally and completely useless. I guess if you can see it, the battery isn't dead and if you can't, it is dead.


Emily has the perfect expression for lots of occasions.

Since I was already all the way out there, I went ahead and went up on top of Hackberry Mesa. The view was very nice. I tried taking a few pictures with my cell phone camera but it's such a lousy camera, I haven't even looked at them. There was one thing that I really wish I could have gotten a picture of. There was a saguaro with arms that had sagged down, and being held in those arms were the crumbling pieces of a saguaro that had been dead for a few weeks. I'd go back tomorrow for a picture of that if my legs weren't so tired (and if I could find it again).

Other than the dead battery, it was a very enjoyable hike. The weather was wonderful and except for the occasional quail (which is always nice to hear), it was very quiet.

No comments: