2-24-18

An early & cold start to a BIG hiking day.

At 6:15am & 38 degrees Bob, Carol, April & I hiked to the top of Flat Iron in the Superstition Mountains. It dropped to 28 degrees on the top! Yay for sunshine that helped warm us up. 

As cold as it was...it made for good hiking temps when you're working hard.

This is on our way up the Siphon Draw Trail. You can see Flat Iron in the middle (far distance).

This is one of my favorite sections of the trail.

It's a very steep walk up this smooth rock.

So steep that Bob slipped! Luckily he grabbed a small ledge just in time. Kidding! I tried to make these photos look scary. #fail. LOL.

Proud of Carol for tackling this challenging hike.

Sisters at the saddle!

Mother & daughter on the top of Flat Iron! Sweet view of the valley to the west.

And a sweet view of the Superstition Mountains to the north.

We took our usual 50 photos. :-)

April Jane, Jane, & Carol

Say cheese then eat cheese.

Enjoyed our cheese & snacks with this pretty view to the southeast.

Such interesting hoodoos (rock spires) in the Superstition Mountains.

Great yoga pose April! That is Flat Iron she is pointing towards (looks like the bow of a ship).

After our time on Flat Iron the 4 of us walked back to the saddle to meet up with 7 friends (they started the same hike 2 hours after us). From this point on April, Bob & I would continue hiking with them on the Ridgeline Trail. It will be 6 more hours of hiking with this crew to reach Peak 5057 and get down the east side of that mountain to Aaron's car. Aaron & Jay had dropped it there early morning for transportation back because Ridgeline Trail is a point to point hike.

So we said good-bye to Carol as she returned back down on the Siphon Draw trail to her car. She made it safely down & had a fun day. Yay! Congratulations, Carol... you did awesome!

The rest of us marched on. Such a beautiful and cool day for this epic hike. Ridgeline Trail photos in my post tomorrow.