This hike was deja vu, all over again

If anyone needed evidence I am getting old, and I’m sure not many people actually need more evidence of that, Wednesday was your day.

The lower end of the trail

With most of the organized activities over, or nearly over, here at the resort I decided to take advantage of a super weather day to take a nice hike into the Catalina Mountains.

When we were at the Sabino Canyon Recreation Area with the children and grandchildren last week I saw what appeared to be a great hike and one that I could easily do on my own. So Wednesday morning a said good-bye to my bride and drove back to the Sabino Canyon Recreation area to make the hike to Seven Falls.

If that name sounds familiar to you, and it didn’t to me, it was because I took almost the identical hike on Feb. 19^th with the resort hiking group.

One of the stream crossings

Apparently in February we approached the Bear Canyon Trail from a slightly different location, but when I was about 1 ½-miles into the hike everything started looking very familiar. Then it started looking positively identical.

But I was two miles into the hike and just decided to complete the hike even though I had already done it before. I’m putting up a couple new photos here, but if you want more photos simply go to my previous post on the hike here.

One thing I do know was that weather on Wednesday was much nicer than it was when I made the hike in February and with all the blooming cactus in the area it was well worth the calories I burned to make the trip again.

And after Saturday’s hike up Mt. Wrightman it seemed quite easy. The water in the canyon was flowing at a good rate and some of the crossings were not as easy as it was six weeks ago.

Then last night we attended “Mary’s Spaghetti Dinner” which is a bi-annual event here at the resort. Mary, who is a fixture in the park, hosts a huge welcome dinner to the resort in November and then a farewell dinner in April.

Sun beams over a big rock at a river crossing

The dinner is a fund raiser for the resort’s favorite sport – Pickleball – which is a combination of tennis, badminton and wiffle ball. If you want more information on the sport of Pickleball just Google it. I have no desire to learn or play the game, but those who do here are positively addicted to it.

The clicking and clacking of the paddle and ball, especially during peak season, starts promptly at 7 a.m. and doesn’t stop until the 10 p.m. noise curfew here at the resort. It’s not so active now, but hundreds of people play and seem to have a good time at it.

Anyway, back to the dinner, we joined about 300 other folks here in the ballroom for a really good spaghetti dinner followed by “Two’s Company” a husband and wife combo who play and sing popular tunes at various resort dances.

Looking back towards Tucson

Some of the men from my Bible Study were there with their wives and we ended up sitting with them after dinner and during the musical entertainment.

Joan and I tripped the light fantastic a couple times and then we pooped out.

We said our good-byes and left the party early at 9 p.m.  Did I mention Joan and I are getting old? We used to get to the party at 9 p.m. and now that’s the time to leave.

On Thursday I got up early and spent some time on the phone with my buddy Kim back in Michigan. Then I went to the fitness center, which is also now pretty deserted, to complete a good workout.

After the workout Joan and I started making our plans for securing the trailer and packing for home.

Deja vu at the falls

This afternoon after taking an inventory of our food stores, we headed to the local Fry’s Store (which is a Kroger affiliate in Arizona) for our final shop. We try to plan our last week so that we use up all our perishable foods and the non-perishables we will bring home.

When we arrived home from the store Joan put the groceries away and I spent about 90 minutes washing Arizona mud off my Tahoe and trailer.

For dinner Joan took our week old chicken carcass (which I thought said she had mold, but apparently she said cold) and made chicken salad sandwiches for dinner.

We finished off some week old baked beans and potato salad, so if you don’t hear from us anymore you might want to check Tucson Medical Center for a couple food poisoning victims.

My formerly mud covered car

Tomorrow we will spend more times packing and storing away items we won’t need into next year.

I have plans to take one more hike (this time one I haven’t done before) on Saturday morning. Every time I look at the mountains that surround us I start feeling like I am really going to miss Tucson when I get home. But we miss our friends, church and family back home and are looking forward to being back in Michigan.

More on Saturday.