Fantastic Superstitions

It was a pleasant drive up to Phoenix (if northwest is "up"), and then a pleasant hike up a gentle alluvial fan to the mouth of the canyon. Everything was green from the recent rains. In the distance, Four Peaks were shrouded in snow. Sabkha frolicked about, sniffing the horse droppings we say here and there. They make me nervous, and my eyes scan the horizon whenever I see the green, hay-ey blobs. The inspiration for adobe, I think. Starting up the canyon we saw some big-house-sized fallen rocks. It is always fun (for a geologist) to look up at the cliffs and try to pick out the point of origin... however, the higher the rock, the faster it tends to weather, and the longer it has been weathering (generally true, not geologic Law). We encountered a group of geriatric hikers who gave us complicated directions about how to get up to Flatiron. "Yeah, I did that back in my day..." sighed one of the old men. We bashed our way upstream through undergrowth and over wet, slick slopes covered with gravel. Eventually we reached a bare-rock chute with a stream sprinkling in from overhead in the form of a waterfall. A young lady overtook us and kept on truckin'. Sabkha decided she preferred to keep moving, and left Erin and I behind as we took a Clif break. Sab kept looking back anxiously, but she was compelled to continue with the Unknown Girl. Finally we go up and traversed a neat rock amphitheater with slanted rocks layers broken off in little 1/2" wide steplets. It wasn't easy to go up, and turned out to be much harder to go down! We stayed right when we saw the "three canyons", and eventually picked up the white spray paint marks. The trail got very steep. Toward the top was a 10-foot "step" that freaked Sabkha out. I had to do a collar grab to get her up. We made our way out onto Flatiron without incident, despite the layer of hard dark ice on the trail, and the 300-foot cliff near at hand. I put Sabkha on leash, not that it would help much if she went after a suicidal chipmunk or Gila monster. The view was nice. We picked out the Santa Catalinas and Rincons, Four Peaks, all of Phoenix (not hard), the Galiuros, and a mystery range that turned out to be none other than the Pinalenos (aka Mt. Graham). We could NOT see Weaver's Needle (although we could clearly see if from Oracle Ridge a few weeks later!!!). The day was already waning, if it can do that, but we pressed on to explore some hoodoo-ed terrain and attempt to find an alternate way down. After discovering a Grand-Canyon-sized, um, canyon in the west side of the Supes, we bailed and rushed down the evil steep canyon. Sabkha had forgotten about The Step, and it was a hassle to get her down. Argh. I had to grad her midsection and try to set her down as she flailed all four legs rapidly, trying to get some claw purchase anywhere, like on my face. Darkness appeared. We donned headlights, but mine didn't do much photon-production-wise. (The Apartment, anyone?) We survived the hike back. It was quite a hump, although I must recommend it for drama, scenery, water, and cool rocks. Oh- it was all volcanic. On a Geologic Excitement Scale of 1 (lowest) to 10 (most exciting), most mafic/intermediate volcanic rocks get about a 2 from me. Booo. [see pics here]