That's What She Said: Super Supes

After an incomplete attempt at the Superstition Ridgeline crossing in December, I came back with a different plan. The scenery up there is so fascinating and the technical parts of the trail so interesting that I knew John would want to experience it too. So what if we have only one vehicle and we wanted to do the one-way traverse? Another runner took trails around the base of the mountains to return to his car afterward, I could do that (all in the name of good training).

Also, selfishly for me, I would have a spotter for the "boulder problem" near Superstition Peak. It's not a problem for everyone (or apparently, most people), just a bit of a high-up move that I don't do every day.

We started early on the trail toward Siphon Draw. I gave John the camera to carry and since he climbs faster than I do, he had plenty of time to take pictures:

Finally got a shot of the fun slabby section:

Nice timing on this photo, thanks John:

And a bunch of pictures as we worked our way up the steep trail:

John did a selfie at my request - we need to show that you were here too:

We finally climbed the Draw without making any errors, yay for multiple efforts up the same hill!

It was a nice partly-cloudy and cool morning, looking out across the landscape:

Starting along the ridge:

I mostly remembered the way and hoped to limit our unintentional detours. This might be our first look at the Weaver's Needle in the distance:

We recently learned from a "Geology of the Superstitions" signboard that these mountains are the result of a resurgent dome - a caldera filled with rhyolite material that was later pushed upward by magma pressure. As everything around it erodes away, we're left with these awesome features:

John continued to take lots of pictures. I'm not used to being followed by my own personal photographer, that's fun!

Looking good, rocks!

John did little side trips to stare down at the various drop-offs toward the valleys on either side:

I focused on the ups and downs and scramble sections:

Lucky for us, the trail does not go this way:

Over here instead:

Time for a quick refuel aka a Spiz pause:

Such tall and multi-layered cliffs, it's amazing we're even up here:

Getting closer to the Needle:

Agave goal posts:

Scenery in all directions:

At the boulder problem, John "bip bip bopped" right up and I climbed as far as I had reached previously. It took one leg swing and one hand from John and that was it. Yay for getting past that! Everything else on the route is well within my wheelhouse.

Happy to be in new territory:

Thumbs up for this trail and this weather:

The trail continued its "easy to follow -- oops it disappeared" pattern. John started watching the route on the Gaia app, which helped several times.

Enjoying more wide open views:

I think this is just past a tricky creek crossing (tricky as in figuring out where to go, not an actual water challenge). Time for a little snack to celebrate:

We found the trail that drops quickly down the other end of the route - not nearly as tough as Siphon Draw but still nowhere near runnable (at least for me):

It seemed like we had a long way to go even though we could see the parking lot most of the way down. Finally we could move faster for the final mile so we made a modest attempt at breaking 5 hours: