The day started off as usual, sunny but unnusually warm for a February day. Forecast is for 80° F in the valley. We prompty met and organized at First Water Trailhead parking lot. Parking is not free and the parking pay station is inconveniently located away from the main parking lot. Which meant a few of us had to drive back to the parking pay meter to get our parking passes. We had 6 people on the hike. A seventh person backed out at the last minute. An eigth and a ninth person were expected to come but had not arrived by the 9:15 AM hike time so the six of us started hiking.

The hike was physically uneventful, hardly an elevation gain to speak off. I don’t think any of us got a cardio workout. It’s pretty much a long walk in the park. The views, though, were great. We could see Weaver’s Needle looming off not too far away. The area is pretty lush and green, must have recieved some rain recently. The record 108-day drought probably did not affect this area. The famous cholla forest of Black Mesa looked like winery grape vines. The trail was busy, lots of other hikers and a few overnight campers. We stopped for lunch at 11:30 AM. A few minutes later, the club president and his female friend (the eight and the ninth hiker we did not wait for) met us on the trail. We were doing a clockwise loop. The president did a counterclockwise. That’s why we met each other on the trail. Apparently, he and his friend arrived at the parking lot 5 minutes late ...

We chit-chatted for close to an hour during lunch and started walking again. Club president went on his counterclockwise loop while the rest of use went the other direction.

We passed by sculpted rock formations in the second half of the hike. The day was hot. One of our hikers was close to running out of water but we all made it back in no time. We were fast: we started hiking at 9:15 AM, and ended at 2:00 PM.