Picacho Peak

I'm a couple of days behind, but.. no one cares. Today I'm still SORE from the hike that I took along with 5 other hardy souls from Far Horizons. We went to the top of Picacho Peak! Compared to last year, I did great this year. While it was challenging and downright difficult in places, I made it without any "I can't do this." I didn't need any butt-boosting. :)

Here's a photo of the whole mountain from a distance. My first photo, looking up at the mountain, doesn't make it look too impressive. I think it's the angle.

The hike was beautiful, with many wildflowers along the way. There were big, black, red-eyed flying insects mating along sections of the path. Like a goof, I didn't take any photos of these insects, and I can't find one on the net.

I did take a few photos, and one was a panorama from the peak. Notice the curvature of the earth!


Here's one of me at the peak:
And some more taken at the peak. The first one is zoomed, and I am pointing out my car, far, far below:



Here are some of our group, as we were just getting started. This is Jack, Dwayne, Pete, Herb, and Dawn:

The hike is nearly 1800 feet of up, with some sections that are so steep that hikers have to do a sort of "batman climb," holding cables as we scale the rocks. There are 13 sections of cables on the Hunter's Trail, which is the one we did this year.