Re: going through the arroyos in rain and mud
Posted by golf cart mud bogging on December 05, 2022 at 02:15:11
In Reply to: going through the arroyos in rain and mud posted by Zonie on December 04, 2022 at 07:40:18:
Adding yesterday to overnight, Phoenix received 1.17" of rain. Strangely the temperature rose during the rainy night and was 57° by dawn. The rain stopped in the early morning.
My mountain climbing partner cancelled due to the risk of slipping on wet rocks. Despite his advanced age, my experience has been that he is almost always more agile than I am, but I understand his concerns. I would just have to go mud hiking instead.
Given that it was getting warmer and no longer raining, I left the hat and coat at home. The coat had hung from my closet door and displayed copious splashes of now-dried mud. The jeans were mud-caked to the thighs. The boots were mostly clean, but I'd get another coating of mud on them.
I went to the west segment of the Reach 11 recreation area this time. There were a few other people on the trails, but it wasn't terribly crowded. I took the south trail first and headed west. Most of the trail was firm, but there were large mud puddles that made satisfactory splashes. Needless to say, I followed trail etiquette and made a point to splash through the deepest parts of the puddles.
At the Squaw Peak Freeway overpass the water drainage made for some particularly deep and satisfying mud. When I got to the 101 Freeway overpass I found that the gravel trail connecting the south trail to the dog park was partly washed out, but I suspect that was the October storms, which were more torrential.
I decided the easternmost soccer field would be the turn-around point. Nobody was there, the field was soggy, and the grass was yellow. I'm guessing it wasn't watered until yesterday.
As I squished across the unused soccer field, I noticed there muddy tire tracks that were clearly from a four-wheeled vehicle but too narrow and shallow to be from a truck or ATV. The tracks were in circular patterns, indicating someone may have been doing donuts. It occurred to me what the vehicle was. I've seen the park staff use golf carts to get around. Maybe yesterday one or more of them took advantage of a rainy day to go mud bogging with a golf cart.
On the way back I busted through a mesquite thicket, finding soft ground but not sinking mud. Without overalls or a coat, my armor was thin, but it then occurred to me to bust through the thicket backwards, and my knapsack provided some protection.
I then took the north trail and passed by the equestrian center. Nothing was going on there this afternoon. I looked over the ground that had been torn up by the construction crew in November of 2019. The low areas in which I had often played in the mud during the past three winters was now chocked with mesquite and palo verde trees. The ecosystem seems to have recovered. Oh well, the environmental damage was fun while it lasted.
Two days in a row is taxing me at my age, so five hours in I was out, for once leaving long before sunset.