The enjoyment of hunting regardless of success

@hasenpfeffer indeed. On this last foray I was just a 45 minute drive and 20 minute hike away from my house in Phoenix. Out in the vicinity of 7 springs. NE of Phoenix. A person could spend a lifetime in just a small corner of this state and still never see everything there is in that area. An interesting thing that one does not truly appreciate unless you get out in the desert and desert mountains. Before I moved here I had read many historical and historical fiction accounts of the desert south west about how people found something (a spring, mineral deposits, hidden valleys or canyons) and memorized land marks to ensure their return to the same spot, only to spend the rest of their life looking and trying to find that same location again without success. Also how the native indian tribes (apache, pima, navajo, hopi, yavapai, papago, yuma ... the list goes on) could be so elusive and difficult to fight. Again a person has to go out into the desert and hike around to even begin to understand what all is out there. Here is a small example. If you look at the 3rd picture above you see a ridge line coming in from the left edge of the photo and dropping down, behind it in the center another ridge line and further to the right behind it another ridge line and behind it the mountains. It was just over a quarter mile to the top of that first ridge line. It looks, in the picture, and in person like a relatively straightforward hike up with a couple small washes and minor humps in the terrain to get up to the top. Not. It took about 20 minutes to get up to the top of that first visible ridge. Here is what you didn't see unless you decided to make that hike and why it took that long. Within 50 yards of where the photo was taken is a cut in the terrain, a wash or ravine where water drains down hill. At that point it is about 18 inches deep. You hike another 200 yards and that cut is 4 to 5 feet deep. Within the next 50 yards it is almost 10 feet deep. Then it slowly get shallower the further up hill you hike. Several other smaller cuts dump into it as you go further up hill. When you are within 100 yard of the top of the ridge these cuts are again just a few to 18 inches deep.There were at least 3 or 4 of these "cuts" on that section of the first ridge line. You can't see them unless you hike up the hillside. You could hide a good 40 to 50 people in those few cuts on that hillside. You could travel past them within 100 yards or less and never see them. Here is the other part. That ridge line is maybe half to 3/4 of a mile long. There are at least 3 dozen cuts in that ridge line the same size or maybe slightly larger and deeper. When you are standing or hiking past the bottom of that ridge line it is virtually impossible to differentiate any one of those cuts from another that is only 200 to 300 feet away. Then when you step back even further (look at the small sections of the 3 ridge lines in the photo) all the ridge lines in the vicinity look alike. What you also don't see is the deep wash / canyon between that first ridge and the 2nd one. It runs down hill from left to right in the photo. The bottom of that wash is a solid 300 to 350 feet below the top of the first ridge line. Just standing there in person or looking at the picture you would never guess. When out hiking in the desert you quickly learn to pick out game trails to follow. Much easier to walk on and less perilous. However they rarely if ever follow a straight line. Combine that with every plant wanting to impale you, footing being moderate at best and traversing terrain that is quite uneven and rocky and you find it takes 20 minutes to hike up a moderate ridge line just over a quarter mile away and 300 feet up. If you stick to the forest service roads / trails and other proven trails you can make good time but you miss quite a bit. This is why I like to hike off the beaten path when possible. Enjoy the area. You never know what you will come across. That is why I always have a GPS along with to "mark" points of interest for future return if I so desire. I have stumbled upon an unmarked spring / pool in a pile of rocks out in the middle of "no where" along with a long lost / forgotten mine shaft (it only went 50 feet into the side of a small canyon wall), a large hill of quartz (you can see it on google earth if you know where to look and what it is you are seeing) all within a hours hike of camp creek. The water pool and mine shaft were previously unknown and not marked by the forest service. However I digress. Until next time happy hunting.