Over the weekend a dear friend and I started our training for the Phoenix Summit Challenge 2013. She made the mistake of asking me to read the Arizona Bucket List in a recent issue of Phoenix Magazine, where I found this challenge and convinced her it would be a great idea. I love to hike, and she’d been talking about hiking more, so I thought: Why not? At any rate, we chose one of the mountain trails on last year’s Challenge to start our training based on how short the hike is. We thought a 2.5 mile hike was doable and a nice way to ease into our training. HA! We couldn’t be more wrong. Unfortunately, we neglected to research this hike, and so we missed the fact that it was over a 1,100 mile elevation change. In less than a mile and a half since the trail was a go-to-the-top-turn-around-and-come-back kind of trail. Just in case it doesn’t come together for you (since it didn’t for us!) that means this was a reaaaaaallly steep hike. So, while she cursed me the whole way there and back, I tuned her out and tried to enjoy the scenery while also trying not to have a heart attack. Here are some pictures from the day!
(To see my friend’s hysterical version of the hike, check out her blog post: http://unsolicitedadvise.wordpress.com/2013/04/16/i-like-going-down/
