Dry Heat My Ass

after my day of rest in flagstaff, where over 100 trains grumble by every 24 hours, i decided to climb to the highest point in arizona -- humphrey's peak at 12,637 feet. i got up early (still haven't adjusted to pacific time even after 2 weeks), put on shorts and a t-shirt, and drove up to the trailhead. i consider myself a pretty responsible person. when i parked at 7:30, it was 55 degrees and overcast, but this is arizona! it gets warm here quick. so i put on my hiking shoes and heavy-duty sunscreen, plus hat and sunglasses. i carried over a gallon of water in my pack, along with some snacks since the trail is 4.8 miles uphill the whole way. look at me, so responsible. and i set off.

the mountain was very green, lots of trees and flowers blooming and rocks to jump around on. about an hour in, it started to sprinkle. the rain was cold, but i was going only uphill so i was keeping warm. plus i love to run in the rain, so this wasn't much different. so i kept going. it kept raining. i kept going.

eventually, i came upon some valley boys -- mark, brandan & adam -- resting on the trail and learned some interesting tidbits of information. such as that it was only 40 degrees outside. (mark had a thermometer attached to his belt haha.) and that i gets 3.5 degrees colder for every 1000-foot increase in elevation. of course, this did not deter me from continuing onward, but i finally accepted brandon's extra poncho. i hiked behind them up the saddle, into a cloud (cool!), still raining.

then it began to hail. i'm not kidding. august 6th in arizona, i'm 3.8 miles up a mountainside, wearing shorts and a poncho AND SUNSCREEN and i am being pelted with hail.

i definitely would not have gone any further in the HAIL, but mark offered me the wool sweater in his pack, and no longer travelling alone, we (and another dude, aaron) set off for the last mile to the top through federally-protected tundra. here's a picture of what we hiked into. besides being rainy and cold and cloudy and entirely uphill, it was uneventful, but i sat on the top of the highest point in arizona!

after quietly enjoying my triumph over humphreys peak -- there weren't any spectacular views to take in, but being in a cloud was crazy -- we set back down. it began to rain again. then there was a HUGE clap of thunder, and aaron took off down the mountainside without looking back, never to be seen again, and obviously very concerned about our collective safety. as if this was really going to make a difference.

none of us were struck by lightning (i guess being inside the cloud offers its own protection) but the way down was completely miserable -- and took almost as long as going up! even with brandon setting the pace at 215 miles per hour. when we finally made it to the bottom almost 8 hours later, i pulled jeans on over my wobbly, mud-caked legs and met the boys at the local brewery, where i bought them a beer for looking out for me.

praise the lord for nice boys taking pity on stupid girls! lesson learned: not all of arizona is hot OR dry.