CrossRoads Blog

A perfect Sunday… Our hike this weekend found us out in the Hell’s Canyon Wilderness again. This time (as we missed it last) hitting the Governor’s Peak Trail headed to the summit. While the hike is fairly short (6 miles give or take) it is not an easy one when you consider there is about 3000 ft. net elevation gain by the time you hit the Summit.

We got an early start, and after an adventurous drive in the wash (only option) on Castle Creek Road where the car found a nice rock, we hit the trail about 9:20 or so. One big difference for this trip was we had added our full backpacks - loaded up with weight - Kimberly about 22 lbs and me with 45 lbs. We of course didn’t need all we had, the purpose was to get in a good practice for our upcoming anniversary trip down the Grand Canyon for a couple of nights. (MORE ON THAT LATER).

Anyway, we headed out and it was a very nice morning desert stroll. We saw a few desert flowers about to bloom (and they really came up in the later hours on our return trip) and for the most part had a nice steady climb for the first couple of miles. Then we hit a nice climb up to a saddle where we paused for a snack - and dropped the packs for a bit. After this we were again on our way. Well after a drop down from the saddle you reach essentially the base of Governor’s Peak. The rub is, there is no trial to speak of. In fact, the whole area is full of cat’s claw. We tried to head up for quite some time, picking our way around boulders and the aforementioned cat’s claw (real nasty stuff for sure) to not much avail. We even backtracked and headed up a ridge above the drainage to see if we could make it that way. No luck… So after many attempts we finally gave it to the prickly stuff - about 1/3 mile and 500 ft elevation short of our goal.

But the good news, was that when we went off trail (which there wasn’t one at that point) we found this way cool waterfall! In fact, it was 4 waterfalls in succession. So we pulled up a rock, had some lunch and took in the view. We have some pictures of the falls, but with the shadows they just do not do it justice (this plus the fact I forgot the camera so all pictures are from Kimberly’s iPhone!

So all-in-all another great hike, some great practice for the Canyon, and a perfect day with someone you love - as I always say “doesn’t get better than that’!

MORE PICS HERE

OUR TRAIL INFO HERE

Another great weekend Hike. This Saturday Kimberly and I got up early and headed “Out West” to Gold Country. Just South of Wickenburg, close to the famous Vulture Mine is Vulture Peak. We hit the trail by about 8:30 and spent the next 3 or so hours doing a pretty cool hike. The trail starts out with a nice stroll through a very green (this time of year) desert floor. Then you hit the base of Vulture, and over the next mile or so you have about a 1000 elevation gain up to the Summit. the trail only goes to the Saddle, the last 200 feet up to the Summit requires a little bit hairy ‘hand over foot’ scramble to get up to the top via a thin little channel. No problem for my ‘Monkey Girl’ and I. We hung up top for a bit, took in the views, took some pictures, then headed back down to the Saddle where we had a protein bar and then scooted back to the car.

We make the hike early because we wanted to spend the afternoon in Wickenburg at the famous “Gold Rush Days“. We have wanted to do this for years and finally did make it. Though we missed the parade because of our hike (and the 1000 horses and Clydesdale’s) we really did have a great time. The weather was perfect, the food decent, and the company as always there best there is…

As you know, Phoenix was a rockin’ town over the end of January and first of February this year. With both the Super Bowl and the Phoenix Open (FBR) in town, it was a crazy time round here. There were about a million parties and events to go along with the two biggies.

A good buddy of ours, Mike Larose came into town to catch the game and hang with us. Mike is huge Patriots fan (and Cowboys but not this year…). So with Mike in town the three of us tried as much as possible to take advantage of all the going on’s and “Party Like Rock Stars”. Seeing you can;t do everything, and we are not 27 anymore, I think we did pretty good. We got out to the NFL Experience and played around there for a day, we hit a Block Party in Downtown Scottsdale (plus checked out a couple of others), we hung for a day over at the Phoenix Open (of course with the rest of the nuts at the 16th Hole), had a couple of great dinners, and even squeezed a racquetball and golf game in. All in all, a great week(end). We will have the rest of the pictures in the gallery soon. Now we rest..

As it now seems to have become a habit, and something I am enjoying, I thought I would do a blog on my trail running. I have never really enjoyed running. It always seemed a little boring, hard on the knees, and about my least favorite way to exercise. Well a few things have changed over the years to change that and I now am diggin’ the heck out of running. First and most importantly is the iPod. I have a 3rd Gen Nano, and what this allows is the ability to play great tunes while you run, and ‘hide’ the moan and groan sounds you know you are making. Hiding those sounds make it so much easier for some reason. If I try to run without music now, I swear I have half the energy.

The other key for me was getting off the road and on the trail. Not only are the views way better (plus no roads to cross and cars to miss), but the ground with some dirt seems so much better on the knees. There are of course some hazards with running trails here in Arizona. Namely rocks, turns, elevation etc and if you bite the durst you will for sure feel it (I can tell you first hand from a spill last month). But overall, its way better and it’s what turned me on to running.

I usually run in Thunderbird Park which is about 2 minutes from the house - so very nice and quick. I have a few routes, but for the most part am now trying to do an hour at a time a couple of times a week (of course in addition to all the other). It depends on the track I run, but normally I get about 5.25 or so miles in the hour which is pretty good considering the total elevation gains average about 1800 ft or so with all the up and down. For the most part I run all but the 2-3 bigger hills (the one to the Summit for sure). On those I ‘hike fast’. I think when I hit the top of those I am walking, I am more tired than the running stretches - which shows you what elevation can do.

I continue to push for better times all the time. I have a goal of doing 4 loops of my ‘track 1′ in an hour by the end of the year. It will be tough and require running everything - even the big hills. I am putting this out here as much as anything to keep me accountable, anybody that reads can ask me how I am doing :-).

If you want to keep up with my runs, you can click HERE for an example - shows the speed, distance, time and elevation from my GPS phone. Soon I will try to add a section to my personal pages on the site. Until then - come out and join me some time…a good competition could be as good as the Nano for speed!