Yesterday Sam, Devin and I hiked to the highest point in Arizona. It is a mountain called Humphrey's Peak in the San Francisco Mountains above Flagstaff. It is part of an old volcano that was almost 16,000 feet high before it blew its top a few thousand years ago.
We left Tempe at 6 am and was hiking by 9 am. It is 4.5 miles one way and you gain 3500 feet in elevation. That is more elevation gain per mile than when I hiked out of the Grand Canyon. Even though its just a steady uphill climb, my knees felt it on the way back down, but I feel great today. The peak is at 12,633 feet. This means I have broken my personal highest elevation mark by over 1,000 feet which was set previously when I was backpacking in the Uintah mountains in college. I did get some altitude sickness but when it began to go from a headache to feeling neauseated, I was only a quarter mile from the top. If I was that close, I was going to summit. While at the top, we watched the monsoon clouds bring rain to the dry forests along the mogollon rim and around the mountain. Normally it is always chilly and windy at the summit, but we could not have had a better day for hiking. It was probably 75 at the summit and barely a breeze but when it did blow it felt wonderful. The thunder clouds of monsoons came in just as the sun was becoming uncomfortable but it only sprinkled on us just as we were beginning our descent and there was no lightening.
Sam, who is starting her first week as a trailwalker on wednesday, asked me to do her fire stepping and I was happy to oblige. We had the stepping at the top of the mountain. It was awesome to do that for her while looking over Arizona. I would have done her rabbitstick stepping up there as well but there were no trees for her to throw her rabbitstick at. There was alpine tundra with beautiful little wildflowers. This means the life zones of Arizona go all the way from sand dunes through the chapparal flats to juniper/pinon to ponderosa to tundra. Along the hike, I even saw fireweed and bluebells which grow in Alaska.
After the hike, we drove to Snowflake to attend the Taylor rodeo. I wore my pearl snap shirt, jeans and leather belt complete with belt buckle. I would have worn my new cowboy hat but it was already dark by the time we arrived so I didn't have a need. You could tell we were in mormon ranching country when they announced that one of the bullriders was one of the local bishops. The rodeo clown compared Obama to one of the bulls that wouldn't get out of arena. He said we got him in there but now we can't get him out. The announcer responded that we'd get him out by roping him just like the cowboys had to do to the bull. They also had fireworks before the bullriding and many people sang along with the patriotic songs including myself. I had so much fun! I wish I could go to the one on July 24 because they have a lot more silly events as well as the usual ones but unfortunately I will be on the Trail.
After the rodeo we headed home and I got back to my house about 1:30 am. It had been an eventful day and we had driven across quite a bit of the state but it was worth it. I love that places seem to be so accesible in Arizona.
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