A hike near Broadway Cave

The weather was gorgeous yesterday. Also, I had just learned the day before that I didn't need to take a pile of work home to get done over the holidays. Time to do some exploring.

The trail that goes out to Broadway Cave in the Superstition Mountains continues past the cave to a canyon. I've wanted to see whats out there ever since I went to Broadway Cave (which was over a year ago, I think). I got an early start since I knew it would take a while to get out to where I wanted to start exploring.

The parking area is only big enough for 4 or 5 vehicles. Fortunately, somebody was about to leave when I pulled up.

Broadway Cave is that hole on the right. The Superstitions look dull from this angle at this time of day.

The eastern end of the Superstitions.

I saw 5 other people near the beginning of the trail, which is about the most people you can see considering the size of the parking lot. There was a light breeze from the east the whole day, which served to blow away the sounds of suburbia. I hesitated to go on this trail because the last time I was on it I listened to yapping dogs and loud motorcycles the whole time. I didn't hear much of that this time.

I took another picture like this. That's two in the past week. I've about worn that out.

The views don't change a lot along this trail, so in a way it's a little boring, though this is a great way to be bored. It took me an hour to get to the part of the trail I wanted to explore.

The view shifts slowly as you climb the trail.

The trail enters a canyon.

Soon after entering the canyon, the trail comes to the remains of a hearth. The rest of the building is gone (assuming there ever was a building). It seems to be a popular destination. People stop there to eat a snack, and leave their trash. Maybe they think their mother will be by later to clean up after them.

Hearth at the canyon entrance.

Why did somebody bring a newspaper out here? The date on it is December 23, 2008.

It looks like whoever built the hearth dug a large hole.

I wandered around out there for a little while. The trail continued up the canyon, but it wasn't really a trail anymore. It followed the bottom of the canyon and so involved a lot of climbing over boulders. Slow going and tiring. I didn't feel like doing that, and I wanted to get back before sunset.

I came across several large "fields" of large boulders in the canyon. They didn't look like they had fallen from up above. It seemed strange how uniform the size color of boulders was in each one. One had dark gray boulders that were 2 to 5 feet in diameter. One had light tan boulders that were 1 to 2 feet in diameter. Nothing grew up between the boulders. The gray boulder field was about 6 feet thick; I know because somebody had blasted or sledgehammered their way through to the bottom (my theory is a guy proposed to his girl there, and they dropped the ring into the boulders and the guy spent 3 weekends out there with a sledgehammer to get it back).

A large field of large boulders.

A hole dug to the bottom of the boulders.

On the way back I noticed something orange about 30 yards to the right of the trail. I went over to investigate and there's another large pit there. There are a lot of these in the Superstitions and I always wonder why a person decided to dig right there.

A pit in the middle of nowhere.

I was almost back to the truck about 30 minutes before sunset when I saw a guy coming the other way. He was wearing camo and carrying a compound bow. He asked if I'd seen any deer. I said that I very rarely see deer. As we passed each other I said that I think I'm too noisy and scare them away. He kept walking, turned his head slightly, and said, "Have a nice day". What I heard, though, was "I'm done with you; go away and leave me alone". I continued walking and glanced back occasionally. When he was far enough away, I stopped, turned, and called out very loudly, "GOOD LUUUUUCK". Hopefully, I spooked any deer within half a mile. That was petty, but it was fun. Click below to see all of the pictures.

2009_12_19

Broadway Cave, success!

Yes, I know, I said I was going to wait until it cooled off about 20 degrees before I tried that again, and it was about 90 today. Well, I kept thinking about it this week. I thought about how it's a very long hike (by my standards, anyway (6 km)). That means I have to be in reasonably good condition to do it. Well, I could do it when I'm out of shape, but it would be difficult and I would pay for it for days afterward. What if I decided to wait until it cooled off, but before it did, I sprained my ankle really bad, or broke a leg, or had a heart attack or stroke, or got lung cancer, and was never able to get back into good enough condition to hike up there? Every time I drove down 60 I would look over at the cave and think, "I could have hiked up there, but now I never will." I decided to do it while I could. You might ask why it was so important to do it. Just one reason, that same old reason. Because it's there.

While I was resting in the shade of a saguaro near the cave, Lauren texted me. She asked if the cave was as cool as I expected it to be. I told her it wasn't cool, but I didn't get into the long explanation of why it wasn't. Actually, I never expected it to be cool. I don't like the trail to the cave, and I didn't like the cave. I didn't expect to. But it was there, and I could go, so I had to go.

On the trail, you are never out of the sight of civilization. That makes for some interesting pictures sometimes, but generally I don't like it. I like to get away from the rat race when I go hiking. And it isn't just the sight of civilization that is bothersome. I find the sound even more bothersome. For the entire 3 or 4 hours that I was on the trail, I was accompanied by two sounds. First there is the constant drone of traffic, punctuated by the occasional Harley with loud pipes. Second, there are the barking dogs. Bark, bark, bark, all day long. Why do so many people get dogs and then leave them in the yard all day to annoy the neighbors with their barking? These sounds follow you all the way to the cave. There is no escaping them.

I'm not saying I didn't enjoy the hike. I did. The sights are beautiful (if you look in the right direction ;-) ). Will I do it again? Probably not. I've already been there, and I have pictures. I'm going to go to Bulldog Canyon tomorrow and listen to the silence.

Anyway, about the hike... It's long. For about 3/4 of the way, it's a gentle up hill slope. Most people like gentle slopes, but they make my hip hurt. Strolling around flat places (like a shopping mall) is painful and leaves me limping. It felt good to get to the steeper part of the trail.

Have you ever hiked a long ways and then got to a steep part and thought, "Oh great, I'm already tired and now I have to climb"? I didn't. When I started up the steep part, my legs felt fresh and strong. That's why I went today instead of putting it off for cooler weather. I knew it would be easy today, but who knows what the future holds?

The steep part wasn't extremely steep. It's still a hike and not a climb (use of hands is not necessary). I must still be short a few red blood cells. I stopped a lot to catch my breath up the steep part. There was a light breeze out of the southwest, which felt really nice. When I got to the cave, though, I found out that the breeze didn't blow there. It was stifling. Also, the cave smelled sort of like urine. Maybe it was all the bird droppings. The cave was not a pleasant place to hang out today. I took a few pictures and went back down the trail to sit in the shade of a saguaro, where there was a breeze.

It's a shallow cave. A mine has been dug into the mountain at the back of the cave. The mine is only 10 or 20 meters deep. It looks like it might have been partially filled in, but I didn't want to stay in there long enough to figure it out.

Have you ever gotten to the end of a long hike and thought you couldn't have gone much further because your legs were so wobbly? I didn't. My legs were tired but had a few miles left in them. My hip was making me limp, though. I think it's tendinitis. What if it isn't and it gets worse and I go to the doctor and he says, "You need an artificial hip, and they aren't built to withstand hiking". Well, then I'm glad I hiked to Broadway cave today.

2008_11_01

Broadway Cave, second attempt

I started out earlier this time, and took more water. I would have made it if I hadn't made a wrong turn. Since I had lost the trail, I was kind of just wandering around. I couldn't see it when I got close, so I didn't know which way to go. I saw some pretty stuff and had fun, though, so it certainly wasn't a wasted trip.

I was on the trail a little before 2. That's a bad time of day for landscape photography. Everything looks so bland without any shadows.

From Broadway_2008_10_25

There's still a lot of smoke in the air. You can see it in several of the pictures.

From Broadway_2008_10_25

It was not hot (maybe mid 80's) and there was a light breeze blowing, but I got pretty warm being out in the sun. I drank all of my water, even the emergency backup water. Fortunately, there are a lot of saguaros out there. They provide much needed shade during rest stops.

From Broadway_2008_10_25

I'm sure I'll get to the cave next time. I'm not going out there again until the temperature drops about 20 degrees, though. Also, it looks like the trail continues up Monument Canyon. I'll have to go see what's up there some time.

Broadway_2008_10_25

Broadway Cave, first attempt

That's right; attempt. As I often do when I hike a trail for the first time, I started too late and didn't carry enough water, so I didn't make it to the end.

It's a little strange how I found this trail. As I was driving out to Peralta road yesterday, I looked over at the Superstition Mountains and noticed a large cave. I'm sure I've seen it before, but yesterday it caught my attention. About that time a guy on a motorcycle went past me. I wondered if he had ever noticed the cave, or if he had even noticed the mountains. He never even glanced over there. It seems sad to drive by something so pretty without even noticing it. Anyway, this morning I was looking at random places in Google Earth. I had the Panoramio layer enabled so I could see people's pictures of various places. Most of those pictures are along highways. I have put a few pictures on Panoramio but I try to stay away from roads. I noticed that somebody that goes by ikanode does that, too, so I was looking through all of his pictures. He has some of Broadway cave, and the trailhead near there. Wow, there's the cave I noticed yesterday, and the coordinates of the trailhead parking lot. I knew where I was going that afternoon.

In this picture you can see the Flatiron on the left. Broadway cave is on the right. If you zoom in and look very closely you probably won't see a young man standing at the entrance of the cave because after being re-sized during the upload to the web album, he's only 2 pixels wide and 3 high. He isn't wearing a shirt, and neither is his fellow hiker. I didn't know they were there when I took the picture. I didn't know they were in any pictures until I got home. Even in the full resolution pictures, you can't tell it's people, but they are in several pictures and they moved around.

From 2008_10_19

The first part of the trail is long and has a gentle slope. The cave doesn't look very far away in the pictures, but that's misleading. The trail is difficult to walk on, too. When people walk on that trail, they loosen the dirt. Then when it rains, the dirt washes away and leaves the rocks. The rocks are loose and make for difficult footing. I bet I used 20% more energy by staying on that trail than I would have a couple of feet to the right or left of it. If everybody did that, though, soon the whole mountain side would wash away.

Since it's such a gentle slope, you don't really feel like you're climbing. I turned around and was looking down on Dinosaur mountain, though.

From 2008_10_19

This picture is taken from where I turned back. It seems close, but it's still quite a climb to the entrance. It would have taken at least another half hour to get to the entrance, and I would run the chance of running out of water before I got back to the truck. I probably would not have gotten dehydrated, but when you hike alone you don't take chances. The thing I was most worried about was walking back on that trail in the dark. I'd be lucky not to twist an ankle.

From 2008_10_19

The sky was full of high, thin clouds. They're the kind of clouds that spoil landscape photography (in my opinion). They look OK in the HDRI's, though.

From 2008_10_19

Those clouds can also make for very good sunsets. I need to practice getting sunsets with this new camera.

From 2008_10_19

Click below to see all of the pictures.

2008_10_19

Oh, I almost forgot. When I was about halfway to the cave, two young men passed me on their way back to the trailhead. They were not wearing shirts. They were not carrying shirts. I don't think they had shirts with them. I didn't see any water, either. One of them was on his cell phone and was saying, "I'm dying on this mountain". They didn't look distressed, though. They were smiling. There was only one other vehicle in the trailhead lot, and they were the only people I saw coming back from the cave.