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I think that during the ride I managed to get out most of my need to be self-congratulatory about organizing today's Bike&Hike event, so I'll keep that to a minimum now and just tell you about the craziest part. If I get my act together, I might have a few pictures from the expedition.
Instead, here's the gist of things: we rode our bicycles from downtown Tempe to the trailhead of Cholla Trail (there were even bike racks available, despite the absence of parking!), and then hiked/clambered about 1.5 miles up to the top of Camelback Mountain, where we were treated to a panoramic view of PHX, Scottsdale, and surroundings (suburbia almost as far as the eye could see! Glittering automobiles and swimming pools everywhere!). I think my dad would have enjoyed this urban style of hiking, even though the sound of cars traveling around below didn't diminish as we reached the summit.
At the top, we luncheoned on an incredibly delicious picnic: hummus and carrots, ants on a log, empanadas, beets, tortilla chips, oranges, strawberries, two kinds of cookies, and two kinds of cake. We eat well. There were no other picnickers among our fellow hikers, but we had no shortage of company at the summit--lots of over-fit young adults and a couple of families with kids. D brought along her insect net to try and catch Dipterans (flies) for her entomology class, which inspired remarks that at the summit we should be able to find a lot of hilltopping insects, as well as hilltopping humans (hilltopping is a behavior whereby animals gather at high points to meet up and mate).
Just as we were finishing up our lunch, a large cloud of insects suddenly started to grow on one side of the hill, and someone screamed, "BEES!" It took a moment for us to even realize what was happening: a swarm of Africanized honey bees had appeared on one side of the mountain, then sped up and across the top of the hill, on their way to somewhere. Our gang, nestled underneath a small tree with stuff strewn everywhere slightly off to one side, wasn't quite sure how to react as our fellow hikers all scrambled away from the top of the hill in a state of panic.
Since the bees looked like a swarm, I figured they were probably not as harmful as our fellow hikers imagined, and shouted at people to stay calm as they tried to get out of the way (admittedly, they were still quite terrifying). Then, as quickly as it had appeared, the swarm crested over the top of the hill and was gone, racing onward to some unknown destination. We were left still sitting there, somewhat dumbfounded by the whole event, but managed to recover our appetites, finished our lunch, hiked back down, and rode our bicycles home again.
We are most definitely going to go on more Bike&Hike expeditions in the future, though I hope to never have the same sort of encounter with bees ever again.
Instead, here's the gist of things: we rode our bicycles from downtown Tempe to the trailhead of Cholla Trail (there were even bike racks available, despite the absence of parking!), and then hiked/clambered about 1.5 miles up to the top of Camelback Mountain, where we were treated to a panoramic view of PHX, Scottsdale, and surroundings (suburbia almost as far as the eye could see! Glittering automobiles and swimming pools everywhere!). I think my dad would have enjoyed this urban style of hiking, even though the sound of cars traveling around below didn't diminish as we reached the summit.
At the top, we luncheoned on an incredibly delicious picnic: hummus and carrots, ants on a log, empanadas, beets, tortilla chips, oranges, strawberries, two kinds of cookies, and two kinds of cake. We eat well. There were no other picnickers among our fellow hikers, but we had no shortage of company at the summit--lots of over-fit young adults and a couple of families with kids. D brought along her insect net to try and catch Dipterans (flies) for her entomology class, which inspired remarks that at the summit we should be able to find a lot of hilltopping insects, as well as hilltopping humans (hilltopping is a behavior whereby animals gather at high points to meet up and mate).
Just as we were finishing up our lunch, a large cloud of insects suddenly started to grow on one side of the hill, and someone screamed, "BEES!" It took a moment for us to even realize what was happening: a swarm of Africanized honey bees had appeared on one side of the mountain, then sped up and across the top of the hill, on their way to somewhere. Our gang, nestled underneath a small tree with stuff strewn everywhere slightly off to one side, wasn't quite sure how to react as our fellow hikers all scrambled away from the top of the hill in a state of panic.
Since the bees looked like a swarm, I figured they were probably not as harmful as our fellow hikers imagined, and shouted at people to stay calm as they tried to get out of the way (admittedly, they were still quite terrifying). Then, as quickly as it had appeared, the swarm crested over the top of the hill and was gone, racing onward to some unknown destination. We were left still sitting there, somewhat dumbfounded by the whole event, but managed to recover our appetites, finished our lunch, hiked back down, and rode our bicycles home again.
We are most definitely going to go on more Bike&Hike expeditions in the future, though I hope to never have the same sort of encounter with bees ever again.
