October 27, 2007

October 27, 2007

Happy 50th Birthday. No, not me, the Arizona State Park system. To celebrate, the park system sponsored a “Hike the Peak” challenge at Picacho Peak State Park. Picacho Peak is a very noticeable “witches hat” volcanic crest rising from the desert floor partway from Tucson to Phoenix. Long a regional landmark it was also the site, oddly, of the only Civil War battle in Arizona.

We haven’t hiked in several weeks so Aimee and I thought scaling Picacho would be a fun restart to our winter hiking season. The weather is predicted to be in the 90’s again so we rose early and got to the trailhead at 8AM. Less than a hundred yards into the trail I was stopped by the biggest insect I have ever seen. Crossing my path was a centipede, a huge scary looking one worthy enough to star in an Indiana Jones movie. A later search of the Internet identified it as the Giant Desert Centipede. This armored and venomous and normally nocturnal creature eats mice and medium-size lizards. I wouldn’t want one of these things crawling in my sleeping bag.

Back on the trail we made it to the mountain summit in less than two hours. It was one of the more difficult trails we have hiked. Several sections near the top were more like rock climbing with the route assisted by a series of cable ropes sunk into the rocks. Amazingly enough Aimee followed me the whole way with little thought of turning back. She is getting braver. From the peak we got great views of the surrounding desert countryside and the near-constant line of I-10 traffic speeding between Tucson and Phoenix.

At the bottom, the state park employees had a couple tents where we could buy lunch and learn more about Arizona state parks. After lunch they served birthday cake and raffled off prizes. Of course, my persistently lucky wife won one of the prizes.