Tuesday...Marcch 8

Blog March 8, 2005

Yesterday was like June here in the Valley. High temp in the sun must have been about 78 and a jacket was nice if sitting in the shade. But we went mountain climbing (albeit on safe trails) so we got heated right on up.

The White Tank Mountains rim the north edge of the Valley. They are rugged rocks that most of the year are brown and dry. In early March they are green with vegetation and colored with delicate flowers of yellow, blue and purple. This is truly the time of the year to see the desert. But back to climbing… There is a Regional Park in the foot hills that has many foot trails and horse trails if you are so inclined. The favorite of Jan and Gary is one that is about a mile long up into a gorge where there is a water fall…during the right time of the year. It is not Oregon, but it is as close to Oregon (or Pennsylvania) as the desert will ever be.

It was a good climb. Started out with a broad smooth path which quickly narrowed and then became rocky…first small, then large. Finally at the end by the falls were boulders which you either had to climb over or around. We got to the base of the falls which is tucked into another small gorge and voilla…there was water cascading down the rocks from about 100 feet up.

There were a number of other hikers…families with small kids (one mother with a baby) older folk…older even than us…young couples trying to get someplace alone and just folks. Each had their own approach to the hike. Picture a blue-grey haired 75ish women with spandex slacks and immaculate, white sneakers stretching to reach the next rock or an eight year old sliding down a boulder to the water’s edge with nowhere else to go and mom trying to coax him back up again realizing that he had gone a bit too far for his short arms to reach…we saw all that and more. But the scene of rugged natural beauty was awesome. It was cool in the gorge; almost cold if you did not keep moving. Getting back out was not difficult save for the blue hairs and kids assaulting you from the front as the masses assembled…some even with little dogs on leashes. Raised lots of questions in my mind about how far they would get or if the dogs would not need to be hydrated somewhere along the way.

We saw so much…Mexican Poppy, Desert Daisy, cactus…Saguarro of course, the ones that have the arms stretching out and up and are so old, and little ones…too many to keep track of. We saw some scat…look that one up…being an old farm boy, I was interested in the various types and who might have been there before us.

Sat at the end of the runway at Luke AFB and watched a couple of Vipers land and a bunch more take off. Reminded me of our summer at Sumter, SC where we were just a few miles from Shaw AFB and took Jeff (and me) to see F-4s scramble in 1968. Jets are still loud and fly fast, no matter what year it is.

Lunch was out at the club house and then swimming at the pool. That was the 78 degrees…and I did get some sun. Swimming was cut short by a call from the AHSAA pleading with Gary to umpire a baseball game that was due to start with only one umpire…so he and I sped back to the house so he could make someone happy. The school was about 20 miles away…so he was late, but that seemed to be ok with them. He is getting on someone’s good list. But the interesting thing is that he is beginning to quickly get a reputation here for his skills.

Doug stopped by last night on his way to a new venue for another school for the week. He was moving across the valley for a few days. He will be back at Luke this weekend. Jodi called and she is doing fine. I think her pregnancy, so far, is text book, which they are thankful for since you never know with the first one how things might turn out.
We all slept well last night…the dogs even though they did not hike, the humans because they did…all of us. So jets are scrambling overhead and another morning breaks in the desert. I think today is a spring training game…whatever…the forecast is for 80 degrees and clear skies…perhaps like a July day in Michigan. Eat your hearts out northern readers while there are drawbacks to desert life (haven’t seen any yet) to have July in Mar