Starting at the Pima Canyon Trailhead, we went up the Marcos De Niza Trail, that quickly turned into the Scotts Ridge Trail. It was constantly up and down on these trails.

We finally reached an observation point about 2.5 miles into the hike, where we took a little snack and shot some views of the city from above. It was quite smoggy there. After we all caught our breath, we started up the Midlife Crisis Trail where the Young Man Trail intersected.

This is the part of the trail we had a lot of bouldering, which I think is this best part of the trail. I think everyone else liked it too. We finally reached the top on the Old Man Trail, and we all decided to make this a lollypop hike instead of up and back. We went over to Buena Vista on the National Trail, where we ate our lunch and again took a well-needed rest.

We started back by taking the National Trail down to the Hidden Valley Trail. We all got through Fat Man’s Pass. I was looking for what is called the Fat Man’s Pass Trail to go back up to Midlife Crisis Trail, but somehow we went up another unnamed trail to the trail.

About ¾ the way up, we came across two crosses with MMXV (2015) marked on them. I had to say at that point I don’t remember these crosses. I have been on this trail twice. This wasn’t the correct trail, but it worked out fine with a little bushwhacking. No one complained, so it all worked out.

We took another small break at the top on the Midlife Crises Trail. Then we took the trail down to where it turns into the Scotts Ridge Trail. We finally got back onto the Marcos De Niza Trail, and it was starting to get a little hot by this point. As we almost completed the trail, we spotted the rock Marcos De Niza signed in 1539.

The hike took 6 hours and was 10 miles, with a EC of +-2313'. This was a very enjoyable hike but was also very “tuff”.