Halfway up the Carney Springs trail

I've been spending a lot of time at the same end of the Superstition Mountains lately. I guess I tend to do things like that, though. I was on the Carney Springs trail twice this past weekend. There are several reasons I went again yesterday. One was that I wanted to see and hear all that water again. That's an unusual experience in the desert. Another was that it was so pretty on Saturday, I wanted to see it again. The last reason is that I've been meaning to hike up to the halfway point of that trail for several months now. I decided I had better do it before I get too old, whooped out, and decrepit to do things like that. My knees ain't what they used to be, and they never were real good.

There were fewer clouds on Sunday.

I remembered that the trail kept getting steeper as it approached the halfway point, but I had forgotten just how steep. I stopped a lot on the way up to catch my breath. Being out of breath doesn't bother me as much as thinking about how difficult it will be going back down the same way. It was a little nerve wracking going down the bare rock portions with water on them.

I found another waterfall.

My destination is on top of those hoodoos.

The steep part of the hike was in the shade, and there was a cool, light breeze. Of course, I was sweating, so I was freezing by the time I got to my destination and back in the sunshine. I had thought about going further along the trail, but I just wanted to get back to my warm truck. I put on a flannel shirt but still thought it was too cold to be hiking. Gee, sounds like I'm almost too old for this already.

View from above the hoodoos.

My GPS data logger couldn't track enough satellites to navigate near the top of the hike, so pictures I took up there aren't quite correctly geotagged. When the weather warms up, I may try to get to the top of the trail. Actually, I'll probably say it's too hot. Click here to see the EveryTrail map. Click below to see all of the pictures.

2010_01_24