Wet New Years, More Hike and Bike

Greetings Earthlings.  How are you doing in this most fractious of years?  Jim and I both continue to wonder how did we get here?  I have R.E.M's song "It's the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine)" stuck in my head.
After a wet weekend we went back out to the Alamo Springs Trail in the Tortolitas at Dove Mountain.  It was a very overcast day, none of my pictures were very good.  Here we have a photo of one of the rockier sections of the trail.  It's good for the proprioceptors.

We did an hour up, and it was enough.  It was a strenuous hour.

We turned around here.  It was enough hike!

Tuesday we biked the 32 mile loop.  It was so overcast that it felt like we were riding at night.  It was also cold.  We both started out wearing our thick fuzzy arm warmers.

Today, we were tired, and did a shorter loop up one side of the Santa Cruz and down the other.  This hurts my heart.  We saw this hawk sitting on the fence when we went north.  Then when we came south he was on the fence on the other side of the river.  Something is wrong with his wing.  There is just no way to get help to him.

So that's  what we've been up to.  Rain, hike, bike.

Sunny Palm Trees

After two days of rain, the sun has finally reappeared.  Happy we are about that.  I took this late this afternoon.

It was a slow day.  There was sleep deprivation last night due to our neighbors firing guns into the air until about 1:30 this morning.  Apparently Newton's Law of Gravity is not being taught in schools in the area.  Nothing hit the RV roof or the truck, so it's a win.  Last night was the worst New Year's so far.
Other than whining about the weather and the firearms, I have nothing of import to convey.

Hiking the Tortolitas

We've been hiking.  Yesterday was from the Genser Trailhead up to the overlook.  It was a good hike. However, it's one we've done a lot lately.  Hidden and Bowen trails are full of rubble, and aren't that much fun for the feet.  That part of the mountains has a lot of pointy rocks that start to hurt after awhile.

Today was overcast and cool.  Jim and I have become such weather wimps, that we decided to hike again.  I suggested Pima Canyon, but Jim demurred, saying it's too rocky.  So, we went up to the Tortolitas at Dove Mountain, because it's much less rocky, right?  HAH!  Double HAH HAH HAH!  We headed out towards Lower Javelina, because it's not as steep as Upper Javelina.  We diverted to the Alamo Springs trail, deciding to do 20 minutes up.  It's so steep!  Much of the trail is piles of big rocks.  This is a benign section of the trail.  For some reason I didn't photograph the piles of rock.  Maybe I was afraid of falling off.

This is the view from where we turned around.  Closer in is the Dove Mountain resort.  Farther out are the mountains.  You can see how overcast it was.

Then we took the Lower Javelina trail.  There is more up on it than we remembered.  We haven't been out there since Christmas 2014.  Check out this saguaro.  There is a lot going on with this cactus.

Look at all of the arms on this guy.

It was a strenuous hike.  We're both feeling somewhat tired, my knees are yelping from all of the stepping up and stepping down.  It's interesting how different the Tortolitas are from the Tucson Mountains.  The Tortolitas have big round rocks, while the Tucson Mountains have small pointy rocks.
Have you seen the national weather forecast for late next week?  There's going to be a cold snap that affects all of the lower 48 states with the exception of southern Florida.  Should be interesting.  The article is here.

Winter Doldrums

Ho Hum.  Christmas is over.  Jim and I are remarkably somnolent at the moment.  I'm giving us one more day to be slugs and then we have to go join a gym. The weather this winter has not been great, so there must be the alternative of lifting heavy objects for no good reason.
I will leave you with a picture I took in Joseph, OR this summer.  It's such a lovely area.  At the moment they're having 19 degrees and snow, so they're off the list for the final resting place for us.

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas to you!  Where ever you are, where ever you're going, we both wish you the best of the season.

Christmas Eve Weather

We went back out to the Genser Trailhead today.  Isn't it just lovely out there?  What you can't see is that the wind was gusting so hard it would push us sideways.  We ended up bailing on the hike and taking the short cut home.  Walking up to the ridge line was just not that appealing.

This is the leading edge of the front.  About 4 pm the wind really picked up and it got dark and now we are having epic rain.  The wind is supposed to drop in a few hours, which will make me very happy.

That's it!  That's all I have, the Christmas Eve weather report.