It’s been about 2 months since I last posted and the world has been in lockdown mode that whole time. Here in Arizona, the Governor’s “stay at home” order expired on May 15, which means that things have slowly been opening up. Salons are accepting clients for haircuts, restaurants are offering dine-in service, and malls are welcoming shoppers again. My SAT (self-appointed trainer, a.k.a. my husband) and I are fortunate to be working from home and are enjoying spending a lot of time with our cats. I don’t think the kitties mind us being at home, but since they haven’t actually said that, I’m not entirely certain. 😉

During the lockdown, I tried to get outside each morning before work to hike or mountain bike. On the weekends, my SAT and I tried to explore a new area and get out of town….which is a novelty for sure during this weird time! I want to share three blog-worthy “trips” that occurred in the past couple of months.

First, about a month and a half ago, I decided to go for a mountain bike ride, as normal. I was happily riding on a trail I’ve ridden dozens of times, when I came upon a little bit of rock (that I’ve ridden over successfully dozens of times) and fell onto my left side. I’m still not sure what happened, but I think my front wheel must have “tripped” and caught a rock. I landed on my left ear, shoulder, and hip. My first thought was that I lost my hearing in my left ear because the podcast I was listening to was only audible in my right ear. Turned out that I broke my left earbud when I crashed. I didn’t incur a concussion, thank goodness, and other than a couple of minor cuts on my left ear and a wicked “tattoo” on my left shoulder, I was fine. My bike escaped unscathed, no scratches at all. I feel like I earned some mountain bike “street cred” with that crash and honestly felt like a bada$$ when I talked about it to some friends who wanted details. 🙂 Still, I took the rest of the week off the bike to recover.

Despite popular opinion, Arizona is not one large desert. There are many different landscapes and microenvironments throughout the state, some of which look like they should belong to Colorado or the Pacific Northwest. Arizona also has a surprisingly large number of creeks and waterfalls. The second “trip” was to a hidden water playground hidden in the eastern side of the Bradshaw Mountain range (closest large city is Prescott, closest little town is Crown King). We decided to do the Big Dipper hike, which required driving on about 25 miles of “washboard-y” road. Once we got to the trailhead (Algonquin trailhead #225), we headed down about 1200 feet to the creek (named Poland Creek), which is only about a mile and a half at most. It was a very pretty hike and we saw lots of wildflowers, an old cabin, great swimming holes, and tunnel webs. I dipped my feet in the water, which felt great. It was super cool to visit a hidden oasis in the mountains.

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The last little “trip” I wanted to share was one we took to Parker Creek, just outside of Globe. The trailhead (Parker Creek Trail #160) starts at around 5000 feet and I definitely felt the higher altitude right away. Along the way, we got great views of the Four Peaks mountains, Lake Roosevelt, and all the wildflowers. We also passed through a burn area, which contained SO MUCH OVERGROWTH on the trail. We were basically hiking through overgrown branches and some thorny bushes. OK, it wasn’t as bad as the Mazatzal hike, but it was annoying enough that we decided to turn back at around the 4 mile mark. There’s only so much fighting I want to do with bushes and branches.

Perhaps the best part of the hike (to me) was seeing a bear at the trailhead! I don’t think that bear was afraid of people because it appeared that it was looking for food. I think my SAT’s best hike moment was seeing a stick bug. Well, each to his/her own. I think the funniest moment occurred during our brief encounter with a military dad and his 4 kids; they were coming up the trail and we were heading back down and they warned us of the bear. After they told us of the bear, my SAT excitedly told them that “we saw a stickbug!” Silence. Well, each to his own.

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Enjoy the pictures and stay well!