After another series of travails, we were ready to hit the trail when I realized my hiking poles must be in my car 70 miles back. Despite my protestations, we headed back to my car. But first we needed to revise our plan. We stopped at a retro cafe in Superior where the servers were dressed and made up like the 40’s. We spread out Gina’s maps and opened a couple of apps and explored all the possibilities. We considered starting at the lake and hiking in reverse, but the Superstition Mountains rise to 6000 feet and we didn’t want the cold and snow. So we decided not to hike that section.
Gina said she had to be home by the 26th. She figured that would only leave enough time to hike passage 16 and 17. Our hike was cut from 113 miles to 39 miles. So we drove back to Roosevelt Lake to get my car. Gina drove hers to our end point as we followed. She hopped in our car and we headed to the Florence-Kelvin trailhead. We had all our gear on and we were actually hiking by 3:45. We hiked three miles through a saguaro cactus forest with carpets of poppies and lupin. It was 70°, windless and overcast. Perfect hiking. We set up our tents, and ate butternut squash.
Mountain Peace 