Backpacking and Climate Changes

Last weekend I went backpacking and I had a blast. Bad news was that we got a late start to the trail head. I went with the girl that works in the office next to me and both of us finished work and got out of Minneapolis at 4:30 pm. We got to the trail head at 11 pm (we could not find it in all of the fog). While we were driving we were contemplating what we were going to do...we decided to just go for it. We hiked in and found our site at 1 am. We had a lot of fun setting up camp in the dark. We slept until 9:30 am and then we hiked out taking a different route. We sat with our legs in the river until were were poured on my the rain. It was like taking a shower with your clothes on. It was a great weekend.

My ward here does a lot of missionary work. Since I moved into the ward we have had 5 baptisms. The last one on Sunday. They have them right before church and I went this week it was very good.

I has started to get muggy here and I have no air conditioning. I wake up from sleeping feeling like I am covered in sweat. I am learning to appreciate the dry dessert weather. I did purchase a fan yesterday which improved last nights sleep.

Goal Acheived

Ever since I started hiking here in Phoenix I have thought about hiking Squaw Peak. I heard of a lot of people hiking this trail, but all of the book that I have about hiking trails stated that this was a strenuous. Two hours of stenuous hiking I found daunting, but the fact that 500,000 people hike this trail every year only made me more afraid to hike Squaw Peak. I did not want a whole lot of people watch me as I struggled the entire way up the mountain. This morning I woke up and decided that today was the day. It is kind of a strange thing for me to decide, but having a break in school leaving me with a bit of time and no funding...the perfect combination for a hike close to home. I set out early this morning with a pack carrying plenty of water, my camera, and plenty of tunes. The hike was actually better than I was expecting. I was a bit slow toward the top but determined to make it to my goal. I am proud to say that I made it under the alloted two hour time and was back home before 11 a.m. I have only a few weeks of hiking here in the Phoenix valley before I have to start hiking in the higher country. Aaahhh!!! This will require more gas as I drive closer to Tuscon or Sedona for some cooler weather.

It is currently 92 degrees and I am going to head out to the pool for a little dip. As you can tell I have a very crammed schedule. I am going to fit in some much needed cleaning and a little laundry and then read a good book. I still have three days left of work this week and then I am scheduled to go and paint at Megan's house.

I am planning for the next semester in school as I bought my textbooks today. I hope that it was not bad karma to buy them already, but I believe that I figured out financially that I can continue with the next semester of school so the fates have been tempted.

Well, with another goal met I am going to have to make a new hiking goal. There are several hikes that take a couple of days, but for those I would have to have my backpacking pack and it is currently have a vacation of it's own in Baltimore. I am going to have to look through my handy books for a strenuous hike which take a longer amount of time to complete. I love coming up with new goals!

Phoenix

Here I am! It is difficult to get a good picture of yourself when there is no one else to take the picture. I attempted a self portrait while out on a hike....I figure that I could have done worse.

Hiking through the desert can be very beautiful. Meandering through the light colored dirt and looking at all of the beauty gives me a lot of perspective in my life and I find that it to be a refuge from the chaos.

Ocotillo is one of my favorite desert plants. It reminds me of green witches finger with long fingernails. It look at it and think of the book "Miss Nelson is Missing." This stuff is found everywhere and it always makes me happy to see it blowing in the wind.

This is a scenic view of the Phoenix valley from South Mountain. I took this picture while hiking Hidden Valley.

I am finding that I am enjoying Phoenix more and more as I spent more time enjoying it's natural beauty. It seems as though I might be spending a lot more time here than I had originally bargained for because the job searching is not panning out as I had hoped. I am determined to make the best of my time. Dad just so that you know, even if I don't move home I am going to definitely try to come home in August to hike Mount Timpanogos.