We have 17 hikers who are up for this 8 mile, 2,000' elevation change hike. To be able to do this hike you need to follow a faint trail marking and do route-finding.

We start on the Lost Goldmine trail after moving all but one car to the Peralta parking lot. We start hiking before 9:00 AM, going by Dacite Cliffs mine. Here we find a large saguaro, a little before the turnoff for the West Boulder Trail by Carney Springs.

At this point you go through a cut in the fence to allow a person’s access to the West Boulder Trail. The trail is split into many paths, so it takes us a little while to find the correct path.

This is also the place you get though the fence to get to the wind cave. If you look over the persons you can see the ridgeline that we will be on top of soon. This trail then switches from the relatively flat Goldmine to the very sharp uphill of the Boulder.

This is where we split into two groups — the Geronimo Cave (8 person) and the non-cave (9 persons) groups. The wildflowers are just a few cacti blooming at this time.

At the Superstition Ridgeline Trail we go right instead of left. We are now on top of the Dacite Cliffs on the Dacite Mesa Trail. This is the less traveled part of the Superstition Ridgeline Trail, so you need very good route finding skills. When we get to the robbers’ meadow for their horses we stop for lunch. There is a small spring here that causes this area to have moss, grass and other wildlife.

As we are stopping for lunch a deer exits the meadow. Because of the water, this meadow has pine and fir trees.

This meadow is our lunch spot. After lunch we will continue around the mesa and get to the trail down to Fremont Saddle. There are many aches in this part of the Superstitions.

This part of the trail is steep. There is some bushwhacking here to get down to Fremont Saddle.

Going down through Peralta Canyon we have a chance to see more flowers, arches and other rock formations.

The non-cave group gets back to the parking lot a little before the cave group, so we relax. When both groups are back, we transfer persons to the car we left at Goldmine and return to Home Depot. This was a fun day in the Superstitions and the temperature was nice.

Prior to the hike Nancy and Bruce had notified the hike leader of our intent to return via the Geronimo Cave trail. We planed on parting ways after lunch at the Robber Roost “Big Stone”.

Andreh, Scott, and Neil waited with the renegade five at the top of Carney for about a half hour before we decided to leave a note and head on. Bruce led the way. We stopped on occasion to look back to spot the others from the group. No luck.

After lunch we headed to Fremont Saddle. We left a note on a pink ribbon stick. It had been six years since I’ve done Geronimo and it seemed all new again. Just prior to the cave we spotted a group up in the hoodoos. Thinking it was the Trailblazers we all did the wave. No response. Must have been another group ... or we just that did not rate any applause.

After Geronimo Cave we continued down the Bluff Spring Trail to the cars.