December was busy with outdoor activity! I started the month with a holiday ride at Browns Ranch, a popular local trail system in Scottsdale. I had a number of ladies in the HBRO mountain biking group I’m part of request a holiday-themed ride, so I organized one, complete with treats and festive attire. It was a really fun morning and everyone came dressed to impress in their holiday best.

The next weekend was my second mountain bike race of the year: Dawn to Dusk. This event is a 12 hour endurance race held at McDowell Mountain Regional Park in Fountain Hills. The objective is to complete as many 16 mile laps as possible in 12 hours. There are many race categories, such as solo men, co-ed duo, and four person teams (men, women, and co-ed). Those categories are further divided into age groups. All that means is that there were A LOT of racers that day on the trail! I was part of the same four person ladies’ team as my race in August because we all thought it would be fun to do another race together. This time, we raced in honour of a young girl fighting cancer; her name is Julia and she’s a friend of one of the ladies on my team.

I can honestly say that the day went by SO FAST! From meeting up with the HBRO crew way too early in the morning and freezing our butts off (it was just above 32F / 0 degrees celsius at 5am) to actually racing to hanging with the crew while waiting to race to eating to playing with our team dog Maya….12+ hours went by in a flash. In addition to the actual racing, the event featured several food vendors (Peddler on the Path mobile cafe, @pizzart_602, and Stanzi’s Food Truck), Active Bodyworx who offered free 10 minute massages that were amazing, and some bike repair and merchandise shops. Although my team didn’t “podium,” i.e., place 1st, 2nd, or 3rd, we all achieved personal bests—woohoo! A highlight for me was passing 7 guys on the climb during my second lap and telling them “good job.” 🙂 I do enjoy passing guys when I ride!

The last major outdoor event for the month was my annual DIY 7 Summit Challenge. The event is based on the official Phoenix 7 Summit Challenge and the goal is to complete all 7 hikes in a day. The hikes are located in the Phoenix metro area. It’s basically the hiking equivalent of a pub crawl…. without the pubs or beer or food, haha. We even had stickers this year! The “DIY” part refers to a few modifications I make to the event, such as the order of the hikes and switching out a few hikes to avoid driving all the way up north. Highlights of the day include a beautiful sunrise, great conversation, an adorable husky puppy sighting, and a full moon. In a strange twist of “Fate,” we had to climb a bonus 8th summit at Fate Brewery in Tempe to get to our table for dinner. That was probably the hardest climb of the entire day! According to my GPS, total mileage for the day was 21.47 miles / 34.5 km (mileage does not include the bonus 8th summit), 5,054 ft / 1,540 m of gain, and less than 12 hours for the entire event, which includes the drive time between hikes. It was a great day and everyone did SO well!

I wish you all a Happy New Year and many great adventures in 2022!