Hiking for rich people

We are at McDowell Regional Park, another of the many regional parks in Maricopa County. These parks are the most impressive of any county parks we have ever heard of. There are several of them, all within driving distance of Phoenix. They offer outdoor recreation opportunities for every interest. Usery Mountain, for example, has an archery range and a shooting range. McDowell Park has a competitive mountain bike course, plus many opportunities for mountain biking on the relatively flat desert trails. These parks are magnificent.

We have a great spot in the campground.

We took an 8 mile hike the first day here. It was a nice, fairly flat desert hike. Had to step aside on several occasions for mountain bikes whizzing by.

For our second day here we did something a little.....different. I guess I should explain.

All of my life, at least since I was about 12 years old anyway, I have been a Denver Broncos fan. So I meet this woman named Vicky, and she's like, perfect. Not only are her three favorite activities mine also (dancing, hiking, biking), but she loves birds, gardens, family, etc. And our, for wont of a better term, rhythms, are in synch. Everything is easy peasy.

But to be a Denver Broncos fan too? Well, that would be asking too much of the hiking/biking/dancing gods.

But picking up on my excitement about them, now it has turned into one of those situations where you have to be careful what you wish for. In the middle of the night, if she thinks I am awake, I might hear: "now who is number 52?"

She has memorized the entire roster.

And she is devouring the game, learning all of the nuances of offenses, defenses, drafting, player selection, and so on.

So of course we have signed up for NFL Rewind, and can watch the Broncos games the next day after they are played. Little did I know I would be married to a woman who would fist pump when Manning throws a touchdown to Decker. Or who yells at a 10 inch IPad screen when Chris Harris is running an interception back for a touchdown: "GO! GO! GO!".

Since today is Monday, our first order of business, then, was to drive to where we could catch a signal and watch the Broncos-Ravens game on our NFL Rewind. We found a city park in Scottsdale that fit the bill.

They won!

While at the city park we noticed a truck with the winner of the "name the business" contest:

After the game we had planned to drive to a trailhead we found on our map of McDowell park. The trail head was not in the park, actually, but the trail itself went into the park. Unusual in our experience.

We drove to the trailhead which was in Fountain Hills. We have never seen a trail head quite like it. Usually, if anything, there is a only parking lot, sometimes (if you are lucky) a pit toilet with (if you are lucky) toilet paper).

Well, this trail head had bathrooms with flush toilets and scented hand soap.





Looks just like the pit toilets we are used to, huh?

Then, to get to the beginning of the trail you have to walk 1/2 mile through a ritzy gated subdivision. To keep the rif raf off of their "lawns," one is provided a "trail" to the actual hike. I kid you not, you are to follow a sidewalk with little feathers embossed on them!

The signs marking the trail head weren't of the usual brown, rusting tin ones that might only have a number on them. Instead, they were engraved in sandstone. There must have been half a dozen of them.

Well, we managed to find our way to the actual trail, which ended up being a nice little 5 mile hike.

There were no little feathers on the trail, though, so we didn't know how we were expected to find our way. And we were a bit worried about bears because we had used the scented hand soap.