Saturday Trip

I started listening to a book on tape this week.  It's a mystery about a man who owns the museum at the base of the Superstition Mountains.  I realized that I have often seen the mountains off in a distance but have never gone to the actual area.  So yesterday I got in the car and drove east to Apache Junction and then headed north to the base of the mountain.  I didn't get as close as I had hoped but plan to go again.  

I guess this is a good time to tell you that I am not a hiker.  And I am definitely not a mountain climber.  This realization came to me when I was a teenager and our leaders decided to take us on a hike into the mountains.  May I just say (I WAS skinny then!) that hiking up was sooo hard and when I reached the top I was euphoric with joy that the nightmare was behind me.  But no.  I thought going back down would be a piece of cake and it didn't take but a few minutes to realize that I was only half way through the agony of the hike.  Who would have thought that going back down would be as miserable as going up.  I find it interesting that even in my golden years going up and down stairs is enough of a mountain experience for me and I hate both directions!  

Back to the mountain.  It is actually really beautiful and with all the rain we've had this years the whole area was just green and lush.  Hiking trails were everywhere and there were a lot of people taking advantage of them.  The mountains have quite a history.  Some Apaches were said to believe that the Superstition mountains was where the hole leading down to hell was located.  If you've ever watched any western movies about Arizona you probably heard of the lost Dutchman's gold mine.  Supposedly, on his death bed, Jacob Waltz told his landlady that he found a mother lode of gold in the Superstition mountains and since that time people have continued to try to find it.  I'm sure that the Apaches that had to hike the mountain were justified in their belief.  I suspect the lost Dutchman lost his mind after his hike on the mountain and so the only gold he probably ever experienced was some that they suggested he had stolen from the Vulture Mine that he worked at.  

I have to say the only thing that looked expensive in the area were some of the homes built at the base of the mountains.  I was never meant to be a person who lived out in the "boonies" so those fancy houses didn't have much appeal to me!