I was here this morning: Piestewa Peak in Phoenix after a dog walk, of course. You can take dogs on the trail, but mine happens to have what I assume to be a very deeply rooted herding instinct, which causes her to act like a complete jack-ass if anyone or anything is moving in a direction she doesn’t agree with.
Parking was a disaster, so I ended up parking out on the street in front of someone’s home. I imagine this is one of the drawbacks of owning mountain-view property. It worked out well though, since I found a part of the trail I hadn’t ever seen before – alternate summit trail. Now if you remember what I’ll now refer to as Round 1 (even though I’ve hiked there many times), I don’t hike the summit trial if I don’t have to but since it links up with the circumference trail I like, I end up on it for a little while anyway. Finding this alternate route minimized the time I had to spend on the summit trail with all the fashion models and city folk. Win!
I didn’t run nearly as much as I did last time due to what I think are two factors: last night I did Flex Fitness’ Weekly Challenge Workout and probably wasn’t fully recovered, and I only had a small banana before the hike. Oh, and it was substantially warmer here in AZ this morning – a beautiful day! Overall, a complete success.
On the walk back to my truck I passed a mom, dad and son, said my usual “good morning” and walked on past. The boy, maybe about 10, remarked to his mother something about me having taken a shower. I wore my Camelbak today and had taken it off once I was off the trail, which revealed the absurd amount of sweat that had accumulated on only that part of my shirt. His remark made me laugh and then I wondered if either of his parents were fun enough to explain why that would happen in the dry heat here. I hope so.