Tag: Whiskey Bottle Trail

Let Me Hold You in My Arms

My Tom Bihn Guide's Pack sits next to an old saguaro with a large number of arms along the Whiskey Bottle Trail in McDowell Sonoran Preserve

I love this old saguaro with a seemingly endless number of arms along the Whiskey Bottle Trail in McDowell Sonoran Preserve. I put my backpack beside it for scale (this is my Tom Bihn Guide’s Pack). The pack probably misses the Pacific Northwest where I didn’t sweat all over it but if so it hasn’t said a word and has faithfully carried all my water and other hiking essentials every time I go out.

I Have Departed and I Will Remain

A dead tree stands near a saguaro along the Whiskey Bottle Trail in McDowell Sonoran Preserve in Scottsdale, Arizona

Most of the branches have broken off this long-dead tree but still it reaches for the sky. In life it wouldn’t have approached the heights of the massive saguaros that dominate the landscape but it would have provided welcome shade for young plants trying to gain a foothold in the desert. In death it can provide some shade and shelter, every little bit helps as while the hills and vegetation behind me are providing some protection from the sun at this early hour, as the sun rises there will be little escaping its glare. Yet life flourishes in this desert, it is not the emptiness of sand and rock I imagined in my youth.