Crowded Pinnacle Peak

Last week while Nathan Jr was still here, we went on 2 hikes as a follow up to the pre-Christmas Grand Canyon and South Mountain hikes.  Dr Desert Flower had to work last Monday, so we planned a Tuesday hike to Pinnacle Peak in Scottsdale.  It was a 3 mile round trip hike with just a few hundred feet elevation change in a very affluent Scottsdale neighborhood.  The trail is incredibly "well groomed" with flora labeled, hand railings, well maintained steps, and "trail rangers" hiking along the small mountain.  Our friend Mahtab who made the incredible de-boned turkey on Christmas Eve went hiking with us.  We met her at 9am along with 2000 other valley residents.  We were way over-prepared with water, almonds, dried apricots, camelbacks, and nalgene bottles.  We had to shuffle past hundreds of other hikers and trail "runners".  After 90 minutes we consumed about 20% of our water and none of the food, finished the hike and called it a day.  Perhaps Pinnacle Peak is a much nicer hike on a week day that is not on a holiday week... but I don't think I'll be trying it any time soon.  Seeing 2 or 3 hikers the whole day is a good day - like South Mountain.  Crossing paths of 2 or 3 groups of hikers every minute, heading in each direction, is less than enjoyable.  And the opulent displays of Dolce & Gabbanna eye wear, North Face active wear, and various perfumey scents wafting from passing hikers took all the "rustic" and "ruggedness" out of the hiking experience.

The kid in the hoodie was sporting a mullet, 70s style. Nathan Jr said we should send in the pic to "mullet sighting dot com" ( http://www.mulletsighting.com/ ) but I was not fast enough on the photo to capture the pure mulletude clearly.