The Recovering from the Window Continues

OK, I overdid it on Saturday with the 12.6 mile hike to the Window.  My legs are as stiff and sore as have they ever been but it is part of the process to return me to just a regular cycling schlep.  My plan is to take the first 2 weeks to hike and ride and lose the massive doughnut around my waste, or at least part of it.  So, on Monday I drove to Picacho Peak, a hike I have previously done several times because it is just a cool hike with a bit of everything.  Half way up the Hunter Trail, a very steep hike. I arrived at a saddle and saw the destination, that peak.  Seems close but there are many people hiking down it and so small are they that you can not make them out.  After this saddle, the trail plunges down and then back up to several sections that require....

.....cables and support structures to get past vertical walls of rock.  Although kind of remote about half way between Phoenix and Tucson, the park has probably 30+ who climb to the summit each day.

Close to the summit, I saw this gold colored lizard in a crevice.  It was about  12" long and soon scampered in to the rock.

A fit hiker can reach the summit in about an hour, give or take a few minutes.  There across I-10 is the destination for this weekend's hike.  No trails, just cross country bushwhacking.  Looking forward to that.

Coming back down, I approached a very large lizard and hoped it would stay there so I could get a good image, then it lingered and as I came closer I began to hope it would leave.  It was the length of my forearm.  At last it too scampered into the rock.  Below I descended with the sun setting on a vibrant surface of green from the recent rain.  I discovered my legs are not sore from the climbing but from the impact of descending.  Time for some time in the spa and tomorrow, the assault on Mount Lemmon!