Back row: New member, Connie Plapinger, Janet and Paul Arnett; Front row: Tim Lawler, Denis Greenland, Barbara Wilder, Carol Burke and Camille Esterman; Photo by Karen Gray
Karen Gray
On June 28 nine SaddleBrooke hikers left for the cool environment of Mt. Lemmon to hike the Marshall Gulch/Aspen Loop trail. We left at 7:00 a.m. with a temperature of 80 degrees and arrived at the trail head almost two hours later to a cool 71 degrees. It was a beautiful, sunny day and, although it was very dry, we saw several nice wildflowers, including wild geraniums, monkey flowers, firecracker penstemon, Indian paintbrush and some columbine. We stopped at the usual overlook for a quick snack and a photo-op. We then continued on up the Aspen trail which has lots of ups and downs and some nice views. When we arrived back at the parking lot, we were ready to eat a lunch at the Sawmill restaurant in Summerhaven. They were very busy which gave us more time to visit with our hiking companions. We enjoyed our lunch and left Summerhaven with the temperature reading 78 degrees, perfect for hiking. We arrived back in SaddleBrooke, tired and surprised at the 103 degrees. We appreciated the cool day we had even more!