Boys Weekend

Jake and some friends, Dave Wilkins and Tanner Potterf, went on a hike Friday after work to Fremont Saddle. They went a little farther and set up camp for the night. They then hiked around Weaver's Needle and made a loop around. A total of 12 and 1/2 miles. No snakes!!!! Yea!

Dave getting a good workout

Tanner and Weaver's Needle

Jake all packed up

Dave dying of thirst

Setting up camp

Dave with his mister

Just hangin' out

Flat Iron

While Jake was out hiking the Flat Iron with his friend Tanner, I thought I would wear my bathing suit to get a little sun while picking our nasty weeds in the backyard. WELL.......about 2 hours or so later I decided to call it quits and come in from the heat. I took a shower and that's when I noticed the burn!!!!! I even felt the grooves where my suit was. It must have been slightly swollen. It didn't hurt that bad until Sunday after church. It was too late to buy some gel stuff to help it. I had to wait until Monday and boy did it kill me. It even hurt to wear a bra. Oh, and the heat that came from it. I actually got several small blisters. It still looks red and it's been 2 weeks already. Here's a picture from Monday when I finally got some pain relieving gel on. Jake now calls me Madame X.

Here's the mountain Jake is going to climb

There's Tanner climbing

Yes, Jake had to climb through this

Up ahead is called the Flat Iron, kinda looks like it too

Here's a video of Jake climbing down

Hiking with Mom

While Jake went out dirtbike riding, I took my mom on the hike Jake and I went on last week. She was a good sport and my protector. This is my last hike until winter. You ask why. For one, it's getting too hot......duh, Arizona. Two, while my mom and I were hiking we had a lovely (more like scare the pants off me) snake cross in front of us on our path. I screamed like a pansy and jumped behind my mom who was originally behind me. The snake was moving across the path and into the bushes. It was a dark brickish red. After we finally passed that area, my mom proceeds to bend over to look at a pretty flower. I said, "Are you kidding me.....no more stopping to look at things. We're outta here!!"

Here's mom before the hike

Beautiful cactus flower

We'll be making our way to that pointy mountain to the right

Pretty berries, they look like a type of tomato

Me after the hike

Mom after the hike, she looks tired

Real Hiking Returns

Jake and I had a great time hiking last weekend so we decided to go again this weekend. We thought that we would try one of the other trails this time. This Lost Dutchman's Trail is longer, but easier than Peralta Canyon. We got some nice pictures of the flowers and different plants that were neat to look at.

We chose the Lost Dutchman Trail this time

Me in front of the parking area and Peralta sign

Beautiful yellows

This cactus was so silvery/shiny

Fuzzy white flower

While walking by I saw a spider's web and then I saw the tunnel it made, way cool

Then the spider decided to show itself and I got this great close-up

After 3 miles, we came to this sign and decided to turn back and complete our 6 mile hike, piece of cake

Jake at the end of our hike

Real Hiking

Jake and I decided to go out and do a real hike instead a hill in our backyard. We went out by Gold Canyon to a place called Peralta Canyon Trail. There are different hikes to go on out their, but we wanted to do the Peralta one which takes you up to what they call "Fremont Saddle". It over looks Weaver's Needle. We did it once before together many many years ago. I about died then and even wanted to quit before getting to the saddle. Not this time. Since I've been exercising a lot and losing weight, this hike didn't kill me as much. I didn't even want to quit this time. It's about 2 and 1/4 miles one way. There's A LOT of uphill, just about kill you hills. We had to take several water/breathing breaks. I love our camel-packs. It kept our hands free and we could drink without stopping too. This trail had quite a few hikers on it with us. It took us 2 hours to get up there and 1 hour to get down. I LOVE DOWNHILL THE BEST!!! We never took any breaks going down. Here are some beautiful pics we took. I don't care for desert scenery, but I have to admit that this was awesome to look at.

Here's where we sign in, in case of emergency

Hmm, we'll do Peralta trail this time

So many beautiful rock formations

Jake after a little hiking

Alisa and more neat mountains

We're up a little higher now, you can kind of see part of the trail to the center/right

I thought this plant was just perfectly shaped, Jake's not doing anything inappropriate

Aren't these rocks just the coolest, they look like puzzle pieces

We finally made it to the saddle, Weaver's needle behind me

Jake's turn

I like this hiking thing. We'll have to go out again before it's too hot!!!