I so needed a vacation and some time in the dirt. Cue- Arizona.
First up on my hike list was Boynton Trail and The Subway. This trail gave it all- rocks, red dirt, streams, forested areas, sketch climbs and maybe getting a little lost.
We were able to get a parking spot right near the trailhead which is also right near the bathroom. I still don’t know how we scored. This parking was only five dollars a day and you can pay on your app so it’s perfect.
We headed out from the trailhead looking for the Subway and somebody had said something about a Vortex on Boynton Canyon Trail. The trail took us to the typical red rocks for amazing scenes for the 1st mile before we turned off and headed for the Subway. This is where things get a little weird. So there’s plenty of trails but they don’t always make a whole lot of sense so a lot of us got lost trying to find the subway. Then we figured out we were going the wrong way so we all turned around and eventually figured out where we were going.
The Subway is this amazing rock and cave formation although climbing up can get a little sketchy. There was water coming down it so it was a little slippery but once you’re up to the top, the views are amazing. It was spring break so it was super crowded, which I keep trying to avoid, but I keep failing at that. That being said, the people were really cool. We all were able to help each other take pictures or chat about how coming up the subway was a little sketchy. Or how getting down the Subway was going to be a little sketchy too.
I could see a corner that looked like it went around the rocks and continued on so I decided to go out and Adventure and see if it did. My mother was very not happy with me. It did work so I was able to get around the corner and they opened up a cave formation. The caves were amazing and the views were amazing. I also found some cave art that I surprisingly managed to take a picture of without knowing.
From there, we went down a second way and I found that to be much easier than going down the original rocky way up into the subway and we headed back to the trail. Or so we thought. We were with another family and somehow we all got so lost. Do you know how you think you’re on the trail and you keep going but then the trail ends and you don’t know what to do when you turn around and the trail has completely disappeared. Yeah that happened. It was great so then we’re trying to use GPS to figure out where we were and GPS isn’t working properly. We couldn’t figure it out so we ended up what it felt like bushwhacking through some bushes just heading one direction and then somehow we found ourselves back on the trailer we diverted off for the subway. We still don’t know how I managed to get that lost.
From there, we headed up towards the end of the trail in Boynton Canyon and took us into a more forest area with a river which was great. I however was starting to have some problems with the heat. Oops, I packed for the cold. This was not cold, so I slowed way down as we headed towards the end of the canyon. once into the canyon, they were against amazing views, as I sat and chilled and ate a snack.
From there we turned around and headed back to the car. The car put us around 7 miles. I was feeling pretty done for the day but my mother was like no we have to get over 10 a day so I refueled at the car, changed my pack for my handheld, and we went out to do some more miles.
We thought it was just a short shot. We took the Mescal trail to Canyon of Fools. . Mescal was great and user-friendly while Canyon of Fools Canyon was not. I mean technically it was shorter than going all the way around Mescal but we did not know the condition of the trail. The trail is mostly a wash. It is not the place you want to be in case of a flash flood, and you can tell that it had flooded recently. Because it’s a wash it was very hard to find the trail. It’s also a mountain biking trail so luckily I was looking for wheel patterns but every now and again we’d get a rocky area and I would get a little confused. The wash was pretty cool, although, like I said, you did start to wonder if the flood was going to come and you were in the wrong place. From there, Canyon of Fools dumped us out onto the road and we had a little over a mile walk on the road back to the parking lot. All in all it was a really good day. I might’ve overheated which I probably should’ve taken as a sign of things to come, but my legs felt good, and I was looking forward to looking forward to the next day.
Slacker Runner 