Friday, April 10, 2015

Thumb Butte

John got to pick our hike today.  He chose Thumb Butte because it was only 1.75 miles and the most popular trail in the area.  He neglected to mention that the first .75 miles was straight up!  It felt like we climbed over 1000 feet but my RunKeeper says it was only 687 feet.  At the top we circled around Thumb Butte.  The Indians named it that because from the north it looked like a fist with a prominent thumb.  Settlers called it Sphinx Mountain because they thought it looked like an Egyptian Sphinx.  We just called it tall with great views of Prescott for 360°.

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At the top of the trail there was a memorial for the firefighters who died at the Yarnel wildfire in June of 2013. Each firefighter had a flag with their picture and a brief description of them. Other people had laid items on the memorial such as toy firetrucks, t-shirts, coins and flowers.

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Maybe the oddest looking house we have ever seen.

It was an easy jaunt down so I chose to add another mile to our hike by taking a longer route for a 3 mile hike.  The rest of the afternoon was quiet and we had a nice campfire after supper. It’s been a bit colder here than we would like. The temperature when we get up hovers around 32° but we have stayed nice and toasty even though we have no services. This is our favorite kind of camping, in the forest, nice and quiet.

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