Saturday, May 10, 2008

Piestawa Peak (aka Squaw Peak)

Since I am kind of in training for the Urban Assault Bike Ride next weekend in Seattle, I have been out on my bike every evening for the last week. I started out about 7 pm and rode the trails for about 2 hours. It seemed like I should probably take a rest day, so this morning I figured a good change of pace would be to climb Piestewa Peak. Its about 1200 ft vertical climb over a distance of probably less than 2 miles, and the trail is more like a badly designed staircase than a mountain trail. It is also claimed to be one of the most climbed mountains in the world, probably true since its one of the smallest. Anyway, it is a pretty good hike to the top and back. I didn't time the hike, but it was probably about an hour and a half. On the way down, a lady who had passed me going up and down was climbing slowly back up again, looking all over the trail. I asked her if she'd lost something, and sure enough, she lost her car keys. I said I'd keep an eye out and continued on down. When I got to the bottom, there was a fire truck and crew sitting at one of the Ramadas, so I asked if they knew about lost keys. They said that a young couple had just walked away and had the keys. We got them to come back and told them that the owner was heading back up the mountain looking for them. I described her and the guy took off running up the hill. I hung around and talked with his wife(?) and another person while he gave chase. Now this guy couldn't have been more than 110lbs and 22 years old, but it was still amazing to watch as he ran up the hill after having just finished hiking it. He caught the lady of the lost keys about half way up and brought her back. While he was gone, I found out that they recently moved from Israel to Phoenix. We had an enjoyable talk and hearty congratulations for the runner when he returned.

One thing I have wanted to get a picture of this spring is a Saguaro bloom. Of course, Saguaros bloom at their tops and its really hard to get a shot of the blooms unless you are in a steep place and get above them. Great thing about Piestewa Peak is that its really steep and you can get above the flowers. I took a couple of shots, but without a good telephoto lens, they didn't come out as well as I hoped. It is now something of a quest for me to get a decent picture.

Another great thing about getting up on top of the peak is that you can see most of the trails in the Phoenix Mtn Preserve. I picked out a few that I didn't know existed and figured out how to get to them. Tomorrow's ride could make for an interesting morning.

2 comments:

Michele said...

your son is not training quite so intensively (i.e. not at all). i think you might kick his butt!

an amazing place to see the saguaros in full bloom is on the highway to Payson. There are mountains literally covered with them north of Fountain Hills.

Old Fat and Slow said...

The real trick for me will be to stay on top of the bike the whole way. This whole thing is tied to the remote possibility that they may have adult sized big wheels at one of the waypoints. Big Wheels are a toy completely wasted on children.

Haven't had a chance to go up to Payson, but there are a few places like White Tanks and north of Lake Pleasant where the Saguaros are pretty thick.

See you next weekend!