Yesterday was Backpacker magazine’s 2nd annual “National Summit Day.” Last year, my friend Crystal and I hiked Arizona’s Humphrey’s Peak on what was the 1st annual National Summit Day. It was a beautiful day and despite no training, we made it to the top. I didn’t know we peaked AZ’s highest point on such an auspicious day, but it was a happy surprise.

This year, I thought it would be fun to hike Humphrey’s again on National Summit Day (hmm, perhaps an annual tradition?), so I got a few friends to join me. Humphrey’s is just outside of Flagstaff, which is generally about 30 degrees cooler than Phoenix due to its higher elevation. Here in Phoenix, the highs right now are averaging 110F/42C. My friends were more than happy to join me and escape the heat.

We left Phoenix at 5:30am and arrived at the trailhead by about 8:25am, hitting the trail a few minutes later. The park rangers warned us to get off the summit by 11am because of impending thunderstorms. We decided to play it by ear and turn around if necessary.

It was a refreshing, cool day with loads of wildflowers in the meadow and tons of lovely tree coverage. When we got to the saddle, 2 gals decided to turn around, while Jodey and I decided to press on to the top and risk the storm.

However, my legs decided that they didn’t want to face the storm and cramped up about 25 minutes from the summit. The cramp in my right leg was so bad that I literally fell to my knees. I may have uttered a bad word or two….in any case, I thought that was my cue to turn around because I had to get back down to the car! I told Jodey to go ahead and “get to the top for all of us.” She did! I waited for her back at the saddle and after a little lunch break, we made our way down in pretty good time (my legs didn’t cramp up again). We did get caught in some pretty heavy rain and hail and heard a lot of thunder. (We later learned that the temperature at the top was 58F/14C and the high in Phoenix was 110F….that’s more than a 50 degree difference!) Each time I heard thunder, that made me pick up the pace a little bit more.

We made it back to the car around 3:15pm and after changing our shirts and shoes, drove back to Flagstaff for some really great burgers and fries. Seriously folks, the food is probably the best part of any big outdoor adventure! Wishing you all happy adventures!

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