Due to being busy in the morning we can go hiking only in the afternoon so we choose something more local. We have just bought a State Trust Land pass so we decide to explore one of the many parcels in our area, just right off Meridian Road. We have chosen a State Trust Land also because we can test our new drone there after getting our pilot certificate. So we park near the entrance and in we go, there is only one other car around so we expect a quiet hike.
This area is typical Arizona desert, flat with some saguaro and chollas but mostly creosote bushes. It is easily walkable as there are no concentrations of cholla and the paths are quite easy to follow.
Of course this changes in washes, the vegetation is much more dense and you could not follow them for too long in many cases without getting bogged down in thorns or branches.
Besides testing our drone we also are geocaching and this area has some very creative caches around with many styled around turtles, quite fun.
This patch of State Trust Land is bounded in three directions by major roads and on the fourth side by the buffer area of a canal with many no tresspassing signs. However the fence is broken down in a few places along our hike and the only people we meet are actually coming from the “forbidden” side.
And then it is time to test our drone. To our surprise it is much easier to fly it than we expected and soon we have an bird’s eye view of the area. It is quite fun to learn to control it and the capabilities.
It is also surprising how speedy it is and how high it can go, quite fun, we do two takeoffs exploring the area before continuing on.
As we continue we have one more surprise, there are quite a few mule deer near the trial. They are more confused than stressed, quite weird. We didn’t even know they are coming this low and after a standoff of a few minutes they decide to continue on their way.
As we return to the car we observe a beautiful sunset, it is like the sky has caught fire. We stand and watch it until it disappears and the coyotes start howling and then we return to the car as fast as we can as the coyotes seem really close. And then we return home after a beautiful day out in the sun meeting wildlife and finding caches.
