There are always lots of horses and rodeo princesses and queens
Of course you can't have a parade without a marching band
Of course there has to be a old stage coach
There is a local group of antique tractor enthusiasts that have to be in the parade also. Doug loved this part!
Trent and Doug had to reminice about the tractors they had driven
Of course the old model T's were all in attendance also
Horses and more horses
Love the miniature ponies!
Beautiful Clydesdale's
Young cheer leeders. The parade lasted about an hour and a half and was a great way to spend a Saturday morning.
Hackleberry Canyon ATV Ride
Our friends Bruce and Connie from Alberta decided to take us on a ride to Hackleberry Canyon. It is up in the mountains on the way to the city of Globe. We left bright and early in the morning and we rode with Bruce and Connie as our ATV was on their trailer with their rig. It was about a 45 minute ride to the trail start. It was also a bitterly cold March morning and we were up about 4000+ feet above sea level. The picture above is Doug driving our ATV off the trailer.
The wind was howling and bitterly cold even though it looks like a gorgeous sunny day. The scenery was spectacular with lots of hanging rocks and different formations
It had snowed a fair amount up here just the week before so there was lots of running water and frozen puddles and icy hills we traversed
The pond next to where we parked and unloaded our rigs was frozen at one end! That didn't boad well for us who are cold whimps!
Love those rock formations
We came around a cornor to an area that had recently burned. Very desolate landscape
More rock formations
We got to the top of this peak and the wind was howling and we were all freezing and certainly not enjoying ourselves so we decided to head back to another more sheltered canyon to have our lunch
We had to take a walk out to the mountain edge to look down and see what we could see
Sharon % Sharon dressed for the cold and still cold!
If nothing else, the scenery was spectacular
Part of the drive we had to traverse a very rocky river bottom and boy did we shake, rattle and roll. I thought my fillings would fall out!
This type of driving went on for quite a bit
I was beginning to think we would never be on smooth ground again
Trent ended up with a flat tire so the guys had to use 3 plugs to close the whole before they could pump the tire up again
Of course all the guys had to stand around discussing the situation
I went for a bit of a walk off the path to water a cactus and found these fresh mountain lion paw prints in the sand. Needless to say my bathroom break was quick one!
This was the more sheltered canyon we headed into for our lunch break
It also had beautiful rock formations
We parked our ATV's and hiked in as far as the canyon wall
Everywhere you looked there was something more to see
I had my hat and gloves off at this point but I was now warmer due to our little trk we just made
The little wildflowers were starting to bloom even though it was still so cold
I just loved the rocks
The saguaros are so facinating as they will grow anywhere
We are heading out of the canyon back to our vehicles earlier than planned because us women were tired of being cold!
We are back to our little pond and at least by 3pm the ice has all melted. It was worth the trip but could have been a lot warmer.
Who expects to come around the corner and meet a rig carrying a load of cement! There is an active ore mine just beyond where we were and they were bring supplies in to it
We are all loaded up and ready to head on home, a little dirtier than when we started! We all ended the day going to a Mexican restaurant in Superior and having an excellent dinner
OUR BIRTHDAY BASH!
Since th amjority of us have birthdays when we are south, I decided to start a tradition of having one big birthday dinner to celebrate everyone's birthday at one. Our group of 8 are in attendance and we are blowing out the candles of the lemon poppy seed chiffon cake I decorated for the occasion
There were six candles on one side and seven on the other, so the idea was half the cake for the people 60 - 70 and the other half for those over seventy!
We all had a fun evening. From the left: Trent, Ann, Sharon, Craig, Connie, Bruce, Sharon & Doug
The next morning we were sitting out on the patio having coffee and a slew of old vintage airplanes flew over. Mesa was having an air show and we figured they were part of it.
It was really interesting to watch them
The following week, Doug and the fellows went on a ride to Mamoth mountain to an old abandoned chrysocolla mine to get some rock. They left at 5 am as they had to drive almost to Tucson to the trail head
This was as they started out on their ride
Doug said the scenery wasn't as spectacular as it is up our way in the Sonoran desert
They were up pretty high as they got to the mine.
The fellows stopping to take a break
This is the old mine site
fire place still standing in the old house
Corals still visible from here they kept their horses and mules for packing
This was one of the ledges they had to travel up. Doug says it got rough at times
Very different scenery than up our way
Old mining equipment just lying around
This was looking down into where they used to mine
Some walls of the old mine buildings
More mine buildings or what's left of them
This was a seam of turquoise they were able to hammer and pick chunks of rock out and brought home about 150 pounds of rock to cut. They had a great day and didn't arrive home till after 8pm. A long but productive day for the guys!
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