Friday Fitness Hike

Friday’s hike was 6.25 miles, starting from the Trailhead Staging Area.  We hiked out on the Pemberton Trail and then explored some of the washes near the former site of the Pemberton Ranch homestead.  We returned via Stoneman Wash and Pemberton.

Linda showed up with a new pair of gaiters.  We needed our gaiters today – they kept stuff out of our shoes as we hiked though sandy and vegetated washes.

Two views of one of the washes we explored:

A photo of Amy as she was…

 

…taking this photo of us:

The small canyons we hiked started out fairly open, but gradually narrowed with lots of twists and turns.  We encountered several forks along the way too.  If you choose incorrectly, you end up in a box canyon.  Today, however, we guessed at the right route; some of our past explorations of this area required us to retrace our steps.

Bob and Sarge pose beneath an undercut section of wall:

Linda and Amy hike past a steep wall.

Amy tells us about this Verdin nest:

As noted earlier, our way narrowed down.  At this point, we had to hike single file.

Taking a water break…

Sarge!

More views on our way back to the Pemberton:

We came across this rusted piece of metal.  None of us could figure out to what it might have once been attached.

A short while later, Amy found this spoon in the wash:

We followed our wash across the Pemberton on its way to feeding into Stoneman Wash. Bob stopped to give Sarge some more water.  I used the time to hike to the top of a small hill to see if we were already in Stoneman wash or if we still had further to go.  (We still had a ways to go.)  While atop the hill, I took this picture of the group with the McDowells in the background:

While still on the hill, I turned around and took this photo looking across Stoneman Wash towards Four Peaks.

It was starting to get warm as we hiked up Stoneman Wash and Sarge was panting a lot. Bob stopped to give Sarge some more water.