Lookout Mountain Hike

On Tuesday this week, it was a rare overcast day in the city, so Clinton and I decided that we would go for a quick little hike after work. We stopped at home to change and pick up Emmy, and went to Lookout Mountain Preserve to get in some quality time with our teeny family unit.

Looking North from the base of the mountain.

Turned around, looking at part of the mountain. There's more to the left, and it's higher.

The above picture only shows part of the mountain. There's the smallest peak to the right, then to the left is the middle peak, and to the left of that (not pictured) is the highest peak. We took a circumference trail that went around the whole thing, instead of up. About 3/4 of the way through, we went up to the top of the middle peak before heading back down.

pre-hike selfies ftw.

We hiked around about a quarter of the trail before we had to stop for puppy's first water break. Seriously, our pup is a champ. She is so teeny and takes like 20 steps to our one, but she makes it through every hike we do - even the long ones!

Puppy!



About 1/4 of the way around the mountain. We are now looking Southeast.

After a quick break, we were on our way again. Clinton and I spent this leg of the hike talking about how stupid and unfair cancer is. Someone we work with was recently diagnosed with thyroid cancer and it's just so frustrating because she is one of the nicest people you will ever meet - not to mention the healthiest! It just feels frustrating and unfair that someone like that (or someone like my sister) has to deal with this crap. It makes you feel helpless. It was therapeutic though - there was nobody else out on the trails but us, so it helped being able to vent and work out some frustrations by sweating a little bit.

I just thought this rocky area was cool-looking.

 



 View to the South.

 

About 3/4 of the way around the circumference of the mountain preserve we slowed the pace because we were looking at all the huuuuuge houses on the west side of the mountain. Seriously, they are enormous! In the one pictured above, there was a wraparound raised patio with arches around the entire house. There was another house (pictured below) that looked like a tropical resort or something with all of the trees surrounding it and the pool. I wondered aloud if the people who live in these houses get irritated when people on the mountain are totally creeping on where they live, because I'm sure everyone who hikes there does it.

 

Also - the clouds were awesome, so you know I had to snap some photos of those too. I just love grey days!

Thanks, clouds, for allowing us to hike in Phoenix in the middle of summer!

 



 

We also took some photos on the peak (this time the photos are facing north again, except from the top now instead of the base). I captured Clinton trying to take a photo of Emmy - poor guy, he can hardly ever get a good one! I tried to get Emmy to come stand next to me to take a photo w/ the city behind us, but she was toooooo scared because about 3 feet back you could see over the edge and she thought she was going to go over it or something. Poor thing... I was trying not to laugh at her, but it was pretty funny.

 

 

She refused to back up at all and laid flat on her belly. As soon as I told her she could move she bolted right back over to Clinton for comfort. Our dog thinks she is a human...

Wimp.

 

After taking in the views at the top for awhile we decided to head back down so we could get home and make supper.

 



The infographic and map at the base of the preserve.

 



Post-Hike. It wasn't difficult, but it was hot even though it was cloudy!

 

All in all, I'd call it a success. It was nice to get outside for awhile on a weekday. We can't wait until the weather starts turning so that we can do these quick little weeknight hikes more often, instead of being forced to go out of town on the weekend if we want to hike!

Prescott Day Trip Photo Spam

I'm not feeling super talkative today but want to share a day trip we took. Since my last post was so wordy, I'll try to keep it limited here, so this will be mostly pictures. :)

A couple weekends ago Clinton and I decided to get out of the triple digit heat and head for somewhere a little more inviting. Clinton's sister Andrea lives in Prescott with her husband and daughter so we decided to go hike around up there, and then meet them later in the day for a picnic. We woke up that Sunday morning and hopped in the car with Emmy and our water packs, and we were on our way.

Adventure puppy, ready to go!

Once we were in Prescott, our intention was to go hike Thumb Butte. On the way there, I started having some weird chest pains. I was paying attention and listening to my body and it started to ebb, so I thought I'd probably be alright. We parked, put our packs on, and got ready to hike.

I just love the forest!

There were several of these little guys on the buildings at the park site.

Thumb Butte from the base, through the trees.

Unfortunately, something super weird happened when we were there. I started having more chest pains, and I could NOT breathe. The hike was fairly steep the whole way, but it was paved so it wasn't like scrambling or anything that I haven't dealt with before ... but my legs were seizing up and I kept having to stop every couple of minutes to catch my breath, and I started freaking out a little bit. I felt like I was going to have a panic attack and I got really irritated and said we should just forget the whole thing and go home - I was acting irrational. I realized that whatever was happening wasn't going to stop, so we turned around and went back to the car. It took me a good 10 minutes to calm down, and Clinton suggested that maybe I was suffering from altitude sickness. I don't know why I didn't think of that, but once he said it, it made sense. There is quite a difference from Phoenix to Prescott, but I've never had that happen to me any other time I've been there so who knows... just a weird, one-off thing.

While I was trying to calm down Clinton drove around downtown Prescott a little bit so we could just look at some of the cool old buildings and houses. (apologies in advance if some of them are blurry or wonky - I took them all from the passenger's seat of our moving car.)

Eventually, after I had calmed down and felt  better, we made our way over to the Recreation Area at the South shore of Lynx Lake. There is a lower, mostly flat trail all around the lake that we decided to walk around. The lake looked so nice - it was a cloudy day and the clouds were reflecting in the water. As we walked around, the clouds got more and more ominous and just as we finished up, it started to rain.

 

 

We went to the grocery store and Clinton ran in to get some stuff for sandwiches, chips, and drinks, and then we headed to the courthouse downtown where Aurora (Clinton's niece) and Andrea (his sister) came to meet us. We ate, laid in the grass looking at cloud shapes, watched Rory fly her teeny little parrot kite, giggled, took pictures at the couthouse, and just relaxed, taking in the perfect weather.

 

 

 

Despite the rocky start, it really was a great day. Here's the Instagram proof:

 

 

Irrefutable, of course. Instagram proof would definitley hold up in a court of law.