Category: Inspirational

Hike review: Phoenix South Mountain, Bursera – National Trail loop


Visible to anyone flying into Phoenix’s Sky Harbor Airport is South Mountain – a notorious mound of rock bearing a few dozen red-light dotted communications towers. Since one of the trailheads for South Mountain is about a half mile from my driveway, I have taken quite a few hikes on it since we moved to Phoenix in 2012.

It was only recently that I got serious with my goal to hike every foot of marked trail on South Mountain – a 17,000-acre preserve owned and operated by the City of Phoenix. Some sources report South Mountain (pdf map) is the largest city park in the nation. Who am I to question them? For a little perspective, Vail Ski Resort in Colorado measures up at 5,300 skiable acres.

I completed the hike chronicled below with my friend Ken on a beautiful Saturday morning in December, 2013. We were blessed with mostly cloudy skies following a day and a half of rain. We also had a few days of rain a couple weeks earlier, so the mountain was as green I have seen it.

Hike Details*

  • Trail(s): Bursera Trail to National Trail via Lost Ranch
  • Length: 5+ miles round-trip
  • Time: 3.5 hours
  • Elevation gain: 800 ft. (ballpark)
  • Difficulty: hard

*Rough estimates. I don’t do GPS.

Click photos to enlarge.

View of South Mountain from the back patio of our home. Bursera Trail lies just over the visible peak.
View of the Estrella Mountain Range on Gila River Indian Community land.
Bursera Trail descending from it’s peak elevation.
Scenic switchback on the descent.
Classic desert scene on the Lost Ranch segment of the hike.
We saw three entrances to abandoned mines like this one on our trek.
Interesting rocks and rock formations add some intrigue to the hike experience.
Hills are alive with greenery thanks to recent rains. These little plants will be flowering before long.
Skeletal remains of a building at Lost Ranch.

My Arizona Bucket List


Image of Grand Canyon
One of many lookout points along the south rim of the Grand Canyon.

I’m creating this list for my family and me, but thought I’d share it for anyone else who might be interested. We just moved to AZ in 2012.

I became aware of many of these sight from the Arizona Highways Magazine TV show and Facebook page. If there are other sites you would recommend, please leave them in the comments box below.

Must see:

  • Chiricahua Mountains
  • Grand Falls, aka Chocolate Falls
  • Sunrise Ski Resort
  • Lake Powell
  • Petrified Forest
  • Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch (don’t judge 🙂 )
  • Sabino Canyon
  • Saguaro National Park
  • Meteor Crater
  • Town of Winslow

Have seen:

Enjoy!

Reflections on my hike of Cholla Trail on Camelback Mountain


I’ve been prepping myself for a 3-day hike in the Grand Canyon in May 2014 by taking on some of the more strenuous trails around Phoenix. Camelback Mountain has a reputation for setting the legs on fire, so when I saw that my church had organized a hike up the humps the first weekend of December, I couldn’t pass it up. Below is a quick summary of my experience.

At the time of our hike, the only way to access the top was via Cholla Trail (pronounced choy-ya) which rises up from the east side. In the picture below, envision hiking a trail cut just on the other side of the spine of the camel that runs from the right (or rear) to the left.

Image

Quick stats:

  • Destination: Camelback Summit – the top of the tallest hump in pic above
  • Distance: about 3 miles round trip
  • Elevation gain: 1,300 feet
  • Time: 3.5 hours; time of day: early morning
  • Weather: sunny with calm air and temps in the mid-50s

Likes:

  • Free admission
  • Views from the top and other vantage points
  • Desert landscape
  • That burn in the legs

Dislikes:

  • Parts of trail require scaling rock walls and navigating back down them
  • Concern of bee attacks as advised by signs (bees killed a few people on Camelback in 2013)
  • Volume of other hikers on the weekend resulted in congestion
  • Parking a half mile from the trail head on a residential street

Conclusion
I’m glad I hiked Camelback so that I can say that I’ve done it, but I won’t be rushing back anytime soon. The single biggest turnoff was the volume of people. Friends have recommended other trails that will help prep me for my Grand Canyon hike, so I’ll place priority on those trails in the future.

If you have hiked Camelback, I would like to hear your thoughts in the comment box below. Questions? Fire away and I’ll do my best to answer them.

Some more pics from my hike (click to enlarge)…

Overlooking the Phoenician Resort
Some members of our hiking party approaching one of many steep segments of the trail.
A cool feeling visual you don’t get very often in the Phoenix area.
A brief stop along the trail to admire the valley view.
Another steep section of trail. Notice the helicopter landing pad for mountain rescues in the upper left third of the pic.
Somehow we need to get to where the gent in the upper right is.
This Christmas tree is at the summit. Another hiker there that day said she saw a couple 20-somethings carrying it up a few days earlier.
Descending Cholla Trail. Good view of a golf course in the upper half of the photo.
Uphill and downhill hikers often negotiate tight spaces on the narrow trail..
I’m sure more than one developer has thought of building a resort up here too.
Nature showing off its amazing ability to adapt to harsh environments.
This is the top of Camelback from a viewpoint several hundred yards before the final ascent.
Me at the summit of Camelback Mountain.

Tempe, Arizona Ironman Triathlon 2013


I heard that the Ironman Triathlon competition was being held in nearby Tempe today, so I had to have a look.

I remember watching highlights from the Ironman in Hawaii on ABC’s Wide World of Sports when I was a kid. The graphic images stick with me today of people crossing the finish line and having virtually no control over their muscles after a day of grueling exercise consisting of a 2-mile swim followed by a 112-mile bike ride, followed by a 26.2 run (i.e. marathon). Today I witnessed it in person.

The Tempe course is great for spectators because you can see the athletes at numerous points in their journey, such as the start and end of the swim and bike ride, plus the run portion at the 4-, 12- and 26 mile points. Hat’s off to these amazingly driven individuals.

Here are some photos I took. Plenty more of professional quality at http://www.ironman.com.

The best way to save on airfare you’ve never heard about


I can’t believe the travel geeks aren’t making a bigger to do about this. I stumbled on to the best travel deal I’ve seen in over a decade without even trying.

I needed to book a business trip to Charlotte next week. In the past I have paid around $700 or $800 to fly there. This time around my fare was only $243 for a round-trip ticket. The plus or minus one day fares were comparable to what I’m used to paying.

It didn’t occur to me until I printed my itinerary that I had booked a departing flight on September 11, with a return flight on September 13 – a Friday.

I’m not superstitious but apparently a lot of travelers are. Seems like these two travel dates are being avoided like the plague by many of my fellow Americans.

You want to save big on aifare in the future? Consider flying on September 11 or Friday the 13th.

My first visit to the Grand Canyon won’t be my last


panorama of Grand Canyon

Two weeks shy of my family’s June 1 anniversary of living in Arizona we finally took a weekend to go see the state’s crown jewel: the Grand Canyon.

So many people ask me if I have been yet, and I always felt a little weird saying no. I have really had no excuse other than, “we’re too busy.” We found an empty weekend on our social calendars, so we took the drive four-hour drive to see it.

In a way, I thought of seeing the Grand Canyon as a bucket list item. Been there, saw that. Check! I had seen plenty of pictures and videos, so I knew what to expect; or so I thought.

What I wasn’t prepared for was literally losing my breath the first time I walked up to the edge of the south rim. If photos are two dimensional and real life is 3-D, the Grand Canyon is definitely 4-D. I can’t explain the fourth dimension, but it’s there.

My first visit to the Grand Canyon definitely won’t be my last. As I stood there at one view point looking down to see a few dozen hikers making there way on the trails like tiny ants, I couldn’t help imagining myself in their shoes. The wheels started turning and I have already begun to plan my next trip.

Our church sponsors a hiking trip each June where you hike down to the bottom of the canyon on day one, then stay two nights in a lodge, and hike back out on the last day. The trip is completely booked for this year but you can bet my wife and I will be near the top of the list when they open it for registration in 2014.

Here is a brief slideshow of some 2-D snapshots of the Grand Canyon.

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Challenge: Give the gift of your full attention


Challenge for the week: Give the gift of your full attention.

Give the gift of your full attention. That’s a gift few people give. That gift alone will make others want to be around you and remember you.

You can’t connect with others if you’re busy connecting with your stuff, too. Put your stuff away. Don’t check your phone. Don’t glance at your monitor. Don’t focus on anything else, even for a moment.

A lesson on how to stand behind your work


Does a guarantee really mean anything in this day and age? Think about it: When something goes wrong with an item you buy at a retail store, who bears the burden of proof? The consumer.

What do you hear when something goes wrong with something you purchase? Prove to me you bought it here when you say you did. Prove to me you didn’t break it through misuse.

With services, it can be even more tricky, unless you have it all in writing. And then you have the burden of keeping the paperwork filed someplace where you can retrieve it.

Recently I found someone who has put an end to all that nonsense. We’re in the market to have our exterior block wall covered with a stucco. I’m a bit of a bargain shopper so I called Dwight after seeing his handwritten sign on a neighborhood street corner.

As I worked my way through a litany questions in the backyard, I got around to asking if his work comes with a warranty.

“Yes!” was his response. “As long as I’m alive my work is warrantied. So for about another 25 to 30 years or so. After that, you’re on your own.”

I can’t ask for much more than that now can I?