Sunday, October 23, 2011

Flagstaff, AZ - Bagging Elden

We began the day with our usual big Sunday breakfast, scrambled eggs liberally laced with onions, red, green and yellow peppers and fresh spinach, english muffins with peanut butter and jelly and a fruit smoothie. Classical music playing on the Sirius. Reading the Des Moines Sunday paper. Love those Sunday breakfasts. Oops, no Sunday paper here but we read the news and do a crossword puzzle on the computer. Our next chore is to move 1 mile down the road to another campground. Why? Don’t ask - I’m not sure even I know the reason.

When we got there, at 10:00, we found the office locked with a sign saying that it opened at 12:00 on Sunday. Drat. So we parked our RV in one of their many empty spots, put a note on the window and went off to do some errands: groceries, Verizon to check our wi-fi and others. Back at the RV park, the office was still locked at 1:00 but the owner came out, helped us and we were able to set up the RV and decide what to do next.

Relax                                                                                       Bo-o-ring

Read a book                                                                            Bo-o-ring

Bookwork                                                                               Bo-o-ring

Laundry                                                                                  Bo-o-ring

Shop                                                                                       Bo-o-ring squared

How about a hike up Mt. Elden, the most challenging hike in the area? Short but steep. Now, you’re talking. It is a 2 1/2 mile hike, 2500’ almost straight up with lots of rocks and boulders to scramble over. Yeah, lead us to it
EldenMtnHike-3-2011-10-23-20-07.jpg
We began at 2:40, a bit late (remember that Arizona is on standard time, not daylight time) for this particular hike in late October. Especially since Gary and I can’t stop until we reach the end of a hike - no turning around in the middle for us. Most of the people we saw were young and scampering down at 3:00 p.m. What are two old farts, flatlanders from Iowa, doing at 3:00 p.m. climbing up? But, climb we did. Actually, with the time frame we had, we couldn’t take many ‘oh, isn’t that a beautiful view, I need to take a picture’ puffing breaks. It is a challenging, grueling hike but we loved it.
EldenMtnHike-1-2011-10-23-20-07.jpg
Through the ponderosa pine, the yuccas, over the boulders, views of the city spread below us at every switchback but the sun dipped behind the mountain as we climbed higher. Luckily we had our poles for this hike. Footing was treacherous at times - though not for the trio we met running down the trail. How in the world do people run down trails?

Finally we glimpsed the sun on a tree ahead of us, then we turned a corner and the sun was shining on us - we had made it to the top. And, what views - a 360 degree circle above Flagstaff. We could see the San Francisco peaks to the North, the painted desert to the northeast, Route 17 heading to Phoenix in the south, the city of Flagstaff circling the mountain below and the pine forest ringing the city.
EldenMtnHike-5-2011-10-23-20-07.jpg
We tarried a bit but knew we had to head down pretty fast so down we went. We actually met a guy heading up who told us he had left his wife further below and then one other 20-ish male climbing up as we were heading down. We found the wife sitting dutifully on a rock waiting but she did admit she was getting a bit cold and her shirt was in her husband’s back pack.

Again, it was treacherous footing on the trail and our poles helped immensely. And, did I mention that it was getting dark? The sun was setting on the other side of Mt. Elden and we could see its shadow lengthening across the valley below us. Then we could see the lights of the city come on. Cars had their headlights on. What in the world are we doing still coming down a mountain?

Towards the bottom, the boulders decreased and the trail leveled out. That was good for us since we were having trouble seeing anyway. We reached our car right before it got too dark to see the trail. But - what about the others still on the trail? i don’t know but, for once, we were not the ones to close the trail, the last ones back to the trailhead.

We took off our boots, stowed our equipment, turned the car heater on full and headed back to the RV with our headlights on, thankful that we had made it down while we could still see the trail.

Dinner was: cruel gruel (hot oatmeal for me) and cold cereal for Big Gary. Again we show our age but it was too late to cook a meal. Showers and relaxation.

Are we glad we hiked this trail? You bet: it was challenging, the views were a great payoff at the end and sprinting to the bottom to beat the dark was exciting and kept our adrenaline pumping.

But, should we have started earlier? Yep. Should we have taken our little lights? Yep, again. Are we sometimes the dimmest bulbs in the chandelier? Don’t answer that, I already know what you’re going to say.

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