(*not true. I just wanted an attention-grabbing headline.)

Yesterday, my S(elf)-A(ppointed)T(rainer) and I completed a hike we’ve been wanting to do for a while: South Mountain’s National Trail. Over the past few months, we have been slowly tackling the peaks around the Phoenix valley and have kept the National Trail on our radar for when the weather is cool and when our legs have been trained up a bit more. My SAT asked his work friend, Matt, to join us for this adventure, to which he agreed. (For the record, Matt told my SAT that he wasn’t in great hiking shape. Cool! I thought I’d be able to keep up with him at least, or maybe even make him feel inadequate by hiking faster than him. Well, Matt lied. He’s in plenty good hiking shape. Lying isn’t cool, Matt.)

The National Trail is 13.71 miles long (22 km) and gains 2,611 feet (796 m) in elevation. In an effort to be environmentally-conscious, we hiked to the trailhead from our house, adding 3.25 bonus miles. Yay us! However, since we were only doing the trail end-to-end and did NOT want to do a round-trip hike (that would be about 35 miles of pain), we had to drop off a car at the end….which was not being environmentally-conscious. Boo on us. Anyway, we knew our limitations, so about an hour before Matt was to arrive at our place, my SAT and I drove both our vehicles to the end point, then drove back home together in one vehicle.

The weather was great for a lower elevation hike (trailhead sits at around 1400 feet): it was cool (high of 14C / low 50s F) and partly cloudy with 0% chance of precipitation (true, even though I did feel a few drops at one point).  [Note: a thru-hike is when one hikes a long-distance hike end-to-end within one hiking season. Examples of iconic thru-hikes include the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), the Continental Divide Trail (CDT), and the Appalachian Trail (AT). Obviously, my use of the term “thru-hike” to describe what my party did today is for humorous purposes only!]

We started our hike on the east end, which is the more popular end. As we hiked west, we saw fewer people and mountain bikers (the National trail is also a popular mountain biking trail). However, we did see a horseback rider and his dog, which was unusual. Another surprising thing we saw was a summit register. Generally, summit registers are on peak summits for hikers to sign. Instead of marking an actual summit, the National Trail summit register marked the highest point on any trail in the park. The last surprising thing we saw as we were firmly on the west side of the park was a cholla cactus forest.

A man, his horse, and his dog!

I like summit registers.

Go team!

So many cholla cacti.

I’m happy with our day today for a number of reasons:

• we got some more good hiking training in;
• we got to do a hike “close to home;”
• we didn’t have a huge drive to the trailhead (other than setting up the car shuttle);
• we got to see the remote west side of South Mountain;
• we got to hang out with Matt!; and
• we got to eat a lot after the hike! (We went to a local Mexican restaurant to refuel and rehydrate.)

Stay tuned for more hiking adventures!

All by myself on the trail.

Gray skies, but not a gloomy day.

At the end of the trail…but we still had to hike a mile to the car!