As bad as I thought

Do you remember a few months ago, I was BMWing about the juveniles with 4WD vehicles that had gotten the road to the Massacre Grounds trailhead closed? I was worried that I wouldn't be able to hike that trail any more because it would be a long hike just to get started. Well, yesterday I decided to see how much effort it would take to get to the trail.

It was great weather for a hike. I like the way the Supes look from this angle.

I also wanted to see how gnatty it was. Every time I walk around outside at home or at work, there are no gnats and that makes me think there won't be any on the trails, either. Silly me. There were a lot fewer yesterday that there were Saturday but still more than in town. I wonder if the cool snap had something to do with that.

I'll get to the trail near that pointy rock. I put a name tag on it in the web album.

I parked at the Crosscut trailhead and started walking in the direction of a pointy rock that is a handy landmark near the beginning of the Massacre Grounds trail. There was sort of a trail near where I started, so I thought that maybe other people had already blazed a trail out there. That wasn't the case though. The further I went, the less distinct it became, until it was easier to follow ant trails than that trail. Well, the only thing that makes ant trails hard to follow is that they are so darn narrow. It was still easy-going, though, with a slight uphill slope and mostly smooth but rocky ground.

Mountains over here...

... mountains over there.

Boundary of the Superstition Wilderness Area.

It was a beautiful day and every time I looked over at the Superstitions I felt like I had to stop and take a picture. Then when I was picking which pictures to upload, I thought I would only select the best so there wouldn't be a lot of repetition. I selected most of them. Sorry.

I took pictures of some stuff besides mountains.

I wanted a picture of this, from this angle, but the sun was right there. So I took a picture of the sun.

Oh, I started all this to see how much effort it was to get to the Massacre Grounds trail. I didn't quite make it to the trail. Even though I was in a mostly flat area and even though I would probably have to bang my head on a big rock repeatedly in order to get confused about which way it was to the road even in the dark due to huge landmarks and a bright moon, I wanted to get back to the truck before dark. Stumbling around in brittlebush at night during rattlesnake season probably isn't a real good idea. I covered about 2 miles of easy walking, but my legs were tired. Maybe I hadn't recovered from Saturday's hike. It's going to be a while before I make it all the way out to the Massacre Grounds again. Stupid juveniles. Click below for all the pictures.

2010_05_25