McDowell Mtns.

Why did I decide to take the 100 mile hiking challenge?  I don't know - but I did and I am going to finish it.  I have until January 30th to complete the 100 miles.  I have hiked in each of the 8 listed Maricopa County Parks.  Let me list them for you:  Cave Creek, Estrella Mountain, Lake Pleasant, McDowell Mountain, San Tan Mountain, Spur Cross Ranch, Usery Mountain, and White Tanks.  Each one of those visits has cost $6 to enter.  I have hiked in the White Tanks twice so far with probably 2 more trips needed to finish up.  It happens to be the closest to us. 

Anyway, these pictures document my trip to the McDowell Mountains on Wednesday. That was a looong drive from my house.  But I had decided from the beginning that I was going to go to every park they listed on the hike challenge.  So off I went.  An hour and a half later I arrived.

I went alone because Doug has abandoned his quest for 100 miles.  Actually it was my idea to begin with so he probably didn't even want to do the challenge in the first place. 

The trails in the McDowell Mountains weren't marked as well as some of the other parks were and I ended up outside of the actual mapped trails and probably hiked at least 2 miles on other trails until I found out exactly where I was.  Whew!  That was close.

This rusted trough was on my map - believe it or not.  You don't see too many of those while hiking around in the desert.  So I knew exactly where I was.  One noteworthy observation from Wednesday's hike was seeing a wolf.  He was wandering around down in a valley following a dry wash.  Probably looking for food.  I watched him for a few minutes.  Luckily I was not on his dinner menu.

Check off 14.4 more miles on my 100 mile quest.  I got to drive home at 4:30 - all the way across town in the rush hour traffic.  That was fun!  NOT!  But I just put on my "be patient" hat and enjoyed the ride.  The sunset was pretty beautiful.