May 28 2012 11 Mile Hike to Tom Thumb

Fran and I went on a 11 mile hike today .... phew ... a little longer than we should have but we made it all the way to "Tom Thumb" and back to the parking lot in a little over five hours.  In the first photo you can see "Tom Thumb" in the center of the photo at the top at about 5.5 miles away.  It sticks up a little taller than the other bumps along the ridge ... a little like a thumb :-)

For a five hour hike in the desert it takes a little preparation for things like ... water.  We started out with seven quarts of water and by the time we returned we had less than one left!  Fortunately, it was only 85-90 degrees otherwise if was more normal temperature like 100 degrees we would have needed to bring another quart or two and probably would not have been able to make the full hike.




This is a picture of Tom from about 1/4 mile away.  The rock stands about 80 feet tall.   I think you need to think rocks are pretty to appreciate the photo :-)  Up close it is really quite cool.  There are all kinds of volcanic rocks at the top of the ridge and they make all kinds of weird shapes.

And here is a picture of me with a few Saguaros behind me on the way back to the parking lot.  

All for now.  Hope everyone had a great three day weekend.