DOING THE BUCKET LIST THE HARD WAY

Freemont Saddle

Length of hike:  4.5 miles

Difficulty of hike:  Difficult

 

Friday 7:30 a.m.

23 hikers and 2 dogs met in the parking lot of Canyon Vistas for a hike to Freemont Saddle

 

This Saguaro has so many arms compared to the

Saguaro cactus we saw on the Hidden Valley Loop/South Mountain hike on Wednesday

 

Starting up the trail

 

View from behind

 

 

These boulders will come into view different times during the hike

 

 

 

Time out for pictures

 

A Century plant amongst the rock

 

We reached the top of the Saddle

Weaver's Needle is in the background

 

Hiking from the Saddle to Pinyon Pine

 

A message cache at the Pinyon Tree

 

 

 

 

Curt signing his name in the 'little notepad'

 

Gary  Lyn  Jim  Curt

 

The Pinyon Pine

 

What a view

 

The hiking dogs

Megan and Chino

 

***************************

911

Hiker down in the Superstitions

 

For the first time in at least 8 years of hiking the CV Hiking Club has an evacuation emergency

 

Don has fallen and is in severe pain

 

Mericopa rescue on its' way

We can see them

They cannot see us

 

Lyn took his shirt off and held it up in the air

 

Jerry took the emergency foil blanket to higher ground

 

A second copter pilot found us as he knew the trail to the Pinyon Pine

 

 

They were able to land about 300 yards from Don's location

 

Lyn with the rescue crew

 

Assessing the patient

 

 

The dogs found a cool place out of the

 way of the sun

 

Folks from our park came along

Dogs Annie and Jack

 

Don is on the stretcher

 

Many hands make the lift a little easier

 

 

Transporting to the copter

 

Don' s wife Carolyn said she wanted to get some

pictures for Don's scrapbook

She said Don had a helicopter ride on his bucket list

 

 

 

Loading up

 

Up up and away

 

 

 

Starting our trek down

 

Two and a half miles

and

1370 feet descent to go

 

Down

Down

Down

 

There are the boulders again

 

One of the paths

 

We sat for a moment

Not far now

We got a radio alert

Rattle snake on the trail

 

We didn't see it!!

 

********************

The next day

Carolyn sent out an e-mail with an update

 Don had a fractured rib

and a punctured lung

He is home and doing breathing exercises

Don expects to be hiking in 6 weeks

 

and

 

Don said

 

NO

 

This helicopter ride did not count for his bucket list