Two Days of Rain and then a Wednesday Hike

Boy, have I got something for you tomorrow, but first, my hike of Wednesday.  Monday and Tuesday, the area received 1.5 inches of rain, more then is normally received for the entire month and appropriate since I was out here.  I checked out the local news web site and over 25 roads were closed because of high water.  It rained, stormed, was cloudy but then on Wednesday, it mostly cleared.  The evening before, I went to a local restaurant to order take out and while waiting, chatted with a guy who had also ordered carry out.  He was an Apache helicopter pilot who trains members of the Singaporean air force and had a very interesting conversation about "things".  Later he told me I ought to check out Wassan peak, a hike out of the Saguaro West National Park.  And so, I headed out for that hike on Wednesday. Note the snow on the peaks on my drive toward the park.

Arrived at the trail head of the King Canyon Trail, which then hits the Hugh Norris trail before turning onto the Wassan Peak trail.  A local told me if I maintained a good pace I'd reach the peak in 2 hours, so I shoved off on a very rocky, gravelly trail.  Still looking for a trail that is conducive for trail running as so far they are either too steep or too rocky on which to run.  After 1900' of climbing on a 3.39 mile trail, I reached the top in 1:05.  I'm beginning to think that while I mostly suck at cycling, I'm a pretty good hiker.  Note the trail zig sagging below the peak.  Ran into a guy at the summit who told me about a couple of other area trails.  Out in these remote trails, you run into lots of outstanding individuals who share similar passions for hiking, back packing and cycling. 

Back in the early 1900's a copper mining company thought this area would produce vast quantities of copper and were so confident of the outcome gave names to the mines like, "King Copper Mine" but alas, the last copper was pulled out in 1943 and the area only produced 1500 tons of copper, well below the expectation.  Still existing are numerous mines that have been barred and encircled in fence.  Finished with just under 7 miles for the hike and planned to jump in with the 8:00am ride out of "La Buzz", a popular coffee shop at the foot of Mount Lemmon the following day, Thursday.