Not what we expected...

Hubby and I went hiking on Sunday afternoon. Wasn't planning on a long hike, just a couple of hours. Maybe a short little hike in the San Tan Mountains would be fun. We should take the dogs. There's a cool breeze blowing, not too far from home. We'll be back in time for dinner. Or so we thought.

We arrived at the San Tan Mtn Park and looked at the large map of trails and picked one based on the length we wanted. 2.5 miles. Perfect. What we didn't note is where the trail ended. We assumed it ended where it started. Oops.

I was feeling motivated after Kolbi's Virginia Flower Experience, and thought I may post some Arizona Cactus. Lots of Cactus

                                                              Tall skinny ones

                                             Short hairy ones

                                            flowering ones

                                            cactus trees


lots of cactus. and lots of desert. We hiked and hiked, til we finally came to the top of GoldMine Trail.

and this is where we shoulda turned around. But we didn't. Isn't part of the evaluation to join the FS 'good judgement'? Well, we just so happened to leave our good judgement at home on Sunday. We continued because the sign said

so we followed the sign. Isn't that what any good hiker should do? No. Good hikers take a map.
We continued over the mountain until we came to the end. More than the quoted 2.5 miles later, we found ourselves in an empty parking lot. One that our car was not in. We discovered we were a mere 6.5 miles away from our car via major highways, and unfortunately, it was much too late to attempt to go back through the mountain.
Arizona's noted wildlife: Coyotes, Rattlesnakes, and Havalinas
Oops.
So we walked to the nearest restaurant and called a good friend to rescue us.
And we made it home in time for dinner.
Barely.

Next time, we'll take a map. And maybe a flashlight.
I thought about this in terms of the foreign service...I think about everything in terms of the foreign service now.
Hiking is like the foreign service because you never know where you'll end up.