Adventure last night 3/02/09 at noon creek

I wish I had had my camera with me last night rather than just my cell phone but these are 2 pix I took. They don't do justice to how pretty it was. The sun's setting pinkness was shining on the pool of water in noon creek and it was so pretty!

I enjoyed hiking so much in the Superstitions that I wanted a bit of exercise after work so I took Goldie and head up the mt. a short way to hike the trail from noon creek to Marijilda. I knew it was a steep trail so it would be a good hike. I started on the trail at 5 p.m. and hiked about an hour before deciding I better come back down. The sun had set over the mt. before I even left but it was quite light. When I came part way down I saw a sign that said 'noon creek ridge .5 mi'. I knew I had already come .75 mi so this seemed shorter back to my car. The trail was very overgrown and hard to see in the light (should have been a warning signal!) but I continued down to noon creek, crossed it and up over the hill. The trail kept climbing and pretty soon I realized I would not end up at my car! By now it was dark and luckily I had grabbed a backpack with flashlight, jacket, clif bar (long time since lunch!), cell phone and water. My plan was to go back to the creek and follow it to the road and my car was not far parked at the corrals above it. I was scooting along boulders when my cell phone slipped out of my pocket and it took some maneuvering to retrieve it. Don knew I had gone up for a short hike so I kept in contact with him so he wouldn't worry. I was also texting my kids sending them the pix above. They were getting kind of worried because it was way past dark. I went partway down the creek but just couldn't proceed due to the high water and no place to walk. Boulder skimming isn't my specialty. I found a place to cross over and climbed up out of the canyon hoping to find the trail again but the growth of bushes, grass, etc was quite dense. My greatest fear was someone would call search and rescue and I would end up in the local paper as they always post those stories to make people look stupid and the search and rescue team seem heroic which are both usually true and definitely would have been in my case!

About 9:40 Kamala suggested she call Chad's dad, Jon, to come find me. I really hated to bother Jon and Leslie but that option was defintely better than search and rescue! Funny thing was - I wasn't lost. I knew where I was and I knew where I needed to be. There were just lots of obstacles in my way and I wasn't sure how to get around them! (I think there is a life lesson there!) Jon was able to reach me by cell phone and I told him about where I was and he headed up. It was really impossible to yell out and hear due to the rumbling creek noise. After awhile I could see his light off in the distance (at 10:42) and he could see mine. He came over to me then cleared a path like a jungle man would to a trail he knew existed and down we went and ended up at upper noon creek campground. We had a nice visit on the way down which took awhile! I got home about 12:00 a.m. very thankful to be safe after the stupid thing I did. That hr hike turned into a 6+ hr hike! Oh my gosh the stars were so beautiful though. I had a lot of pondering time and had some special feelings come to me about where I have been in life, scary times like facing divorce and how grateful I am to be where I am now.

When Don returns we will have to go back on that trail so he can see what his stupid wife did while he was gone! I told him that is what happens when he leaves me - lol.