I went on a cool little hike with a co-worker this weekend. A photo gallery is up on flickr.

I’ve actually gotten quite a bit of hiking in this summer. Several long –very long– day hikes and a backpack trip or two.

This particular hike was mostly a scramble down Pine canyon in the Santa Catalinas. We started off heading down the Palisades trail and then dropped into Pine canyon. Lots of cascades, falls, and pools of precious water made the hike extra special. After a slight detour we connected with the East Fork trail and made our way past Sycamore Reservoir and on out to Prison Camp (officially named Gordon Hirabayashi Recreation Site).

Another great adventure here in the southwest.

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Jenny and I recently took a trip to Flagstaff where we hiked to the highest point in all of Arizona.  Mt. Humphreys tops out at 12,633 feet and on a clear day provides views all the way to the Grand Canyon and beyond.  It was a beautiful day and though we weren’t setting any speed records for the 9 mile hike, my lungs and heart told me I need not go any faster.

This was the highest elavation hike we had ever done.  Someday we’d love to hike Mt. Whitney or Longs Peak.  Someday.  For now we’re happy exploring the peaks and canyons here in our own great state.  California and Colorado will wait.

A little over a year ago Aaron found out about a pole vaulting club in Tucson. He was pumped - he hadn’t vaulted since high school and fantasized about soaring over a 14 foot bar again. I was excited for him but never imagined myself vaulting. Having a little fear of heights, I don’t think pole vaulting is something I would gravitate towards. After a few practices Aaron talked me into going to watch. I am not a watcher - I am a doer. I didn’t last long just watching. That first night I just got on the trampoline to “warm up” - it was a cool night for just sitting around. The next practice I went to try this pole vaulting thing.

Mental Preparation

Well learning how to pole vault has been a slow process with a couple of injuries along the way but here I am a year later competing in my first meet. It wasn’t as scary as I anticipated, in fact it was rather exciting and not scary at all. I was the only female vaulter thus, as long as I cleared something, I would “win”. Well I started at 6 ft. and cleared that with no problems. We bumped it up 6 inches and I cleared it again - no problem. Seven feet took two attempts to clear and 7′6″ proved too much for me. After every jump I was giddy with excitement. It was hard to believe that I was actually pole vaulting.

I am excited about our next meet and looking forward to practice. I have lots left to learn - in my opinion I have only learned half of the vault - I can plant and jump but I don’ t really invert or turn over the bar. It makes clearing the bar a little difficult since I go over sideways. I tend to be a slow methodical learner, especially when it comes to sports but you know, the beauty of the whole thing is that I can learn this at a gradual pace. I am not limited to a 3 month track season or even four years of high school. I really have as long as my wonderful coaches are willing to coach.

To be quite honest, as with most new things I try the vault has really been a life lesson for me. The most important thing about the vault for me is learning how to step out of my comfort zone into an area of uncertainty in order to improve. If I never leave my comfort zone, I don’t challenge myself to become better. I put a lot of trust in my coaches and in myself that I can do what I am asked to do. With each little success, a sliver of confidence is gained. That confidence is critical for me. If I don’t believe I can do something I usually won’t. However if I believe I can, I have a much greater chance of actually doing it. So as for me in the vault, nine feet here I come!

Oh yeah, I also did long jump at the meet - it was ugly- enough said!

View the rest of the pictures from the meet (including some of Aaron) .

Sutherland Trail

So on February 27th, Lance, Erin (friends of ours), Aaron and myself set off for Cargodera Canyon in the front range of the Catalina mountains just north of Catalina State Park. We hiked up the Sutherland trail a ways and then dropped down to the creekbed of the canyon and essentially boulder-hopped our way out of the canyon. As I mentioned the water was flowing down the entire canyon. If you do enough hiking in the desert you learn that water likes to play disappearing acts . It will be trickling along then all of a sudden it is gone and you are looking at sand. Then maybe another 100 feet or even a 1/2 mile later it shows up again gurgling along. So to say there was water flowing down the entire canyon is rather profound.

looking down Cargodera Canyon

Our hike was absolutely wonderful - I was ecstatic hopping from rock to rock over the water. Smelling it, hearing it, watching it tumble, swirl, and cascade over rocks just made me smile the whole way. The day was awesome, partly cloudy with big puffy dark clouds threatening the sky, adding an element of excitement to the hike. Everything was fresh and alive with all of the recent rains. Lance and Erin as always were such a pleasure to hike with, sharing all kinds of information about the landscape and history of the area. I wouldn’t have wanted to spend the day any other way.

water cascade in Cargodera Canyon

The adventure today was all about the costume.

We went to the 17th Annual Arizona Renaissance Festival dressed in costumes we bought on our last two or three visits to the Ohio Renaissance festivals. The Arizona one was at least twice as large, but I’d say they are equally enjoyable. Lots of crafts (which start to become redundant), lots of food, and plenty of “shows” scheduled at half-hour intervals.

After an akward moment while fueling our car at a busy gas station, my nervousness melted away during our actual visit. There are too many other people dressed in strange costume to feel weird. My outfit was practically too normal.

All in all, we had a good time and will probably make the trip again next year.

Our most recent backpack trip epitomizes one of the key reasons that I like to backpack. It is an escape from our complex, yet somehow “easier” life in today’s society. Being removed from most of the gadgets and conveniences of life that “progress” has brought us allows me to simply enjoy being alive. I can appreciate our beautiful and amazing planet that we live on. I can actually relax, not thinking about all of the tasks that need to be done at home or work. It is a wonderful opportunity for me to reflect and spend quality time with Aaron. Sometimes the simplest things in life can be the most rewarding and most enjoyable.

Well, I’ll give a brief description of Aaron and my recent backpack trip to Cochise Stronghold. Our original plan consisted of hiking up to the stronghold on Sunday and spending the night near the stronghold. On Monday we would explore the area of boulders around the stronghold, then hike down a canyon to the parking lot, making an 6-8 mile loop. Things didn’t go as planned. For starters we didn’t get to the parking lot until 2:30pm. We shouldered our packs at about 3:30 and head up the stronghold. A mile and a half to two miles up the trail we found an interesting section of boulders. We left the trail to check it out. It turned out to be a really nice camping area as well. It was already 4:30 so we decided just to stay there for the night and then do the rest of the loop the next day. We could save exploring for another trip.

The next morning it was cold - 20’s. I found it difficult to motivate myself to get moving so we didn’t. Instead, we dragged our sleeping bags outside and read our book (we were in the middle of reading “Angles and Demons” by Dan Brown to each other) until the sunlight reached us. The silly book was rather engaging so we didn’t actually start packing up to leave until 12:30pm. Needless to say we didn’t do the whole loop, we simply hiked back the way we came. Definitely not one of those record breaking hikes for miles or altitude gain/loss!

On the other hand, the two days were absolutely gorgeous. The moon that night was bright, the sky clear and the air was crisp and clean. Spending the day lying out in the sun in our own private, outdoor “home” was simply heavenly. I couldn’t have wished for anything else.

The next time we visit though - I’ll make it to the stronghold…

The one thing I forgot was the fact that I’ve been biking a lot with the guys over these past few months and Jenny is still very new to the sport. Chiva Falls might not have been the best choice of trail for Jenny to go on at this stage. A few miles into the ride she took a spill over the handlebars. It shook her up a bit, but since she wasn’t seriously hurt and we hadn’t seen the actual falls, she decided to ride on. I love this woman.

The falls were fantastic, just like the day before. Unfortunately, right before we were getting up to head back to the car a few people showed up and before we even realized it, they were shooting guns at the falls. It was surreal. I couldn’t believe how loud it was. I’m not afraid to say that it scared the crap out of me. We quickly gathered our things and left the shotgun toting people to themselves.

Chiva Falls — Thanksgiving Day
With Friends — Day before Thanksgiving

I hope that Jenny might grace us with her perspective on some of these adventures, but for now it will probably be just me. She’s a busy girl, it’s hard enough just getting her out there for the actual adventure.

Our latest bit of fun was a mountain bike ride on Thanksgiving day. I’ll put some photos up soon. Just like my other weblog, this will be somewhat sporadic, but the good news is that this will be focused on our vacations and trips, even if it’s only a day trip.