humphreyspeak

Mid-year recap, part 2/3

~ reluctantroadie ~ 2 Comments

Continuing with my 2025 recap! In April, I took a quick trip to Victoria, Canada to visit my brother and his family. I found it really interesting that I got an empty row on both my inbound and outbound flights! Amazing. 😀 Victoria is such a pretty city! Its roots go back to England and you can see many British influences all around the city, including FLOWERS, tea shops, and gardens. I enjoyed hanging out with my family, visiting cool coffee shops and bakeries, and taking long walks to enjoy all the lovely flowers.

A row all to myself!
Cherry blossom tree
The smell of freshly baked bread and pastries is one of my favourite things.
Inside a cool concept grocery store called The Market Garden. This market is a refurbished house and each room contains a different type of grocery item and chandelier!
This is the most beautiful grocery store I’ve ever seen.
The soap room.
Specialty treats.
A very polite, a.k.a. Canadian, street sign.
Street gargoyle.
The rest of the pictures in this set are from a walk I took in Beacon Hill Park.
This totem pole is 127 feet and 7 inches tall!

In May, I did 2 fun day trips. The first one was to (finally!) ride at Bean Peaks in Prescott. This is a fun trail system that is modeled after conventional bike parks. That is, most of the trails are “gravity fed,” i.e., downhill! The main difference is that in order to get to the downhill trails, you have to pedal your way up, instead of taking the chair lift up to the top. Bean Peaks is great for all riding levels, as the trails are flowy and smooth. I had a fun day with my friends Janey and Keeley and we appreciated getting out of the Phoenix heat and riding new trails.

Here we go!
Bean Peaks is well signed!

My second May day trip (ha, that sounds funny!) was a hike at Horton Creek with my friend Kate. Horton Creek is quickly becoming one of my favourite areas to visit because it is just so pretty and features a waterfall! We had a gorgeous day and basically had the area all to ourselves. Kate’s dog, Jasper, also had a great time running circles around us and checking out all the foliage. The hike itself is a pretty mellow 8 miles with enough elevation gain to earn a decent lunch. 🙂

Jasper having a grand time!
Water in the desert!
We saw a deer too!

In June, I went on another 2 day trips. Phoenix starts to really heat up in June, so getting out of town is welcome relief. Last year, I rode the Full Sail trail in Flagstaff for the first time and it was so fun, I knew I had to ride it again soon. However, “soon” turned out to be “a year later,” due to schedules and availability. This year, I got to show Janey Full Sail and we both had a blast riding a well designed downhill trail! The uphill riding to get to the start of the downhill wasn’t too bad, since we parked at a different trailhead than where I parked last year. That was a good move on my part because we “only” had to ride uphill for 3 miles instead of 8 miles and could do laps. Beautiful day with good company!

Ah, Humphreys Peak. I’ve hiked Humphreys annually for almost 10 years! I normally hike this with my friend Crystal (for example, see this post), but this year, she couldn’t make it. So, my SAT (self-appointed trainer and husband) joined me this year and we used the opportunity to make this hike our one and only big training hike for our upcoming Colorado trip (more on that in the next blog post!). For the uninitiated, the Humphreys hike is about 10 miles (16 km) round trip in distance and around 4000 feet of gain (1200 m). Because my SAT and I have high altitude hiking experience, I knew that we wouldn’t be adversely affected by altitude sickness. However, since we weren’t in top hiking shape, I wondered how we would withstand the day. (We were fine!) Our hike was great, weather was perfect, and we got to escape the Phoenix oven for a few hours, which is always a treat in summer!

We did it!

Thanks for sticking with me so far! Here’s a bonus picture of a pretty sunflower to end this installment of my midyear and the first half of 2025. Stay tuned for the third and final installment of my midyear recap!

But…did you die?

~ reluctantroadie ~ 1 Comment

Yesterday, my friend Crystal, and I hiked Humphrey’s Peak, which is the highest point in Arizona. This hike is an annual tradition for us and is our way to catch up, while catching our breath, haha. I call our annual Humphrey’s hike our “do or die” hike because we basically pick a day, meet at the trailhead, and….hike. We don’t train for this. We just do it. Yesterday was also “National Summit Day,” so our hike was particularly appropriate and relevant!

The weather yesterday was PERFECT. It was the best weather I’ve ever experienced while hiking Humphrey’s. Typically, I try to reach the summit by noon, to avoid any potential thunderstorms. However, there was zero chance of thunderstorms yesterday. We had clear skies and a light breeze all day. Beautiful.

The hike took us about 6.5 hours (this includes a few rest breaks and a longer lunch break at the summit). I think we made pretty good time, considering neither of us was in “good hiking shape.” One interesting thing I noticed was that shortly after we reached the saddle, I got a “second wind.” I asked Crystal if she was ok if I hiked on without her (she was) and I motored my way up the last mile to the summit. Hmm. Maybe all the mountain biking I’ve done in the past year, especially the climbing, prepared me more than I realized?

Highlights from yesterday include:

  • PERFECT weather and temperature.
  • Meeting lots of cute dogs on the trail!
  • Seeing our friend Stevo on the trail!
  • NOT seeing the usual amount of little bugs on the summit. For whatever reason, there were few of those bugs at the summit, which meant we could spend more time on the summit!
  • The summit was NOT windy and cold.
  • Absolutely delicious smells during the last couple miles. We were hiking through a Ponderosa pine forest and the bark of the pine trees smelled like caramel and vanilla. So yummy!
Looking fresh at the start of the hike.
This is right at the start of the hike.
I love the purple!
On our way!
We ran into Stevo! Always fun seeing friends on the trail.
Getting higher…
SO GREEN.
Only 1,237 more feet to go!
At the saddle. One more mile.
Nerdy picture of my Garmin at the saddle.
My new friend, Alex!
The summit is “somewhere up there.”
At the summit! Arizona’s high point at 12,637 ft (3,851 m).
Statistics at the summit according to my Garmin.
Summit picture (summit sign behind my head).
Absolutely beautiful views from the top.
Final statistics.
The “we’re tired” picture at the end of the hike.

My Garmin said that we hiked 10.09 miles (round-trip) and climbed 3,255 ft (992 m) in 6 hours 38 minutes. My Garmin also said that I burned 2,351 calories. I don’t think I burned that many, but I DID permit myself to eat some fries after the hike!

So many adventures! Catch-up blog post, part 1

~ reluctantroadie ~ 1 Comment

Seems like I’m making the same excuses for not updating my blog in a timely manner….too busy doing stuff! I’ve been fortunate to have enjoyed some great mountain biking adventures and even an extreme hike since my Bear Jaw race in August. Without further ado, here’s part 1 of my “catch-up blog post,” in chronological order!

First, in September, I got to participate in a SMBA ladies’ bike park skills clinic at the Fort Tuthill Bike Park just outside of Flagstaff. A bike park is a specially designed place where you can practice mountain biking skills, such as jumping (riding over and past a ramp to “get some air”), dropping (either rolling down or dropping over an obstacle, like large boulders or tree stumps), and pumping (using your arms to create momentum, i.e., pumping, while riding on a closed track). My clinic focused on the mountain bike fundamentals, like cornering and shifting body weight forward and back, then used the fundamental skills to test our abilities on the various bike park features. I’m still a beginner when it comes to doing jumps and drops, but I feel like I now have the head knowledge to attempt baby jumps and drops on my home trails. It was a fun day up in Flagstaff and inspired me to continue working on my skills.

  • Working my way around the pump track.
  • Practicing low body position.
  • Working on drops.

For the October long weekend, my SAT (self-appointed trainer, for you newer blog readers!) and I went to Vegas to visit friends and do some mountain biking. I was particularly interested in seeing how similar/different the Vegas trails are compared to the Phoenix trails. I’d say that the Vegas trails I rode are more rocky and rugged than the Phoenix trails (not that there are no rocks in Phoenix, just that there seemed to be MORE rocks in Vegas). That difference made for a slightly more challenging riding experience for me, but in a good way. I definitely rode some sections that were pushing me out of my comfort zone because of factors such as technical rocky sections, exposure, and the unfamiliarity of the trails. It was really fun to catch up with friends and I know my riding improved because of navigating new trails and practicing “looking ahead” and “reading the line.” During the drive back to Phoenix, my SAT and I stopped at the Monolith Garden trail system just outside of Kingman and checked out the trails there. We really enjoyed the beauty of the rock formations and the solitude of the area (we didn’t see anyone during our entire ride). The rock formations reminded us of the Chiricahua National Monument in SE Arizona–simply amazing.

  • Hello Red Rock Canyon! How I’ve missed you.
  • Love this view.
  • Love the red rocks.
  • More beautiful SW desert views.
  • Vegas’ Southwest Ridge. You can see the Strip in the distance.
  • So good to see friends!
  • Monolith Garden trail just outside of Kingman, AZ.
  • Mark testing his balance.
  • Vista of Monolith Garden trail.
  • We saw cows near the end of our ride.
  • I like cows. They are gentle creatures.
  • Got to get a selfie!
  • Cool hole in the rock.

On October 17, my friend Crystal and I successfully summited Humphreys Peak. We do this hike each year, usually in the summer. However, this summer, we could not do the hike because of all the forest fire closures in and around Flagstaff. We were a little bummed to miss out on our annual “do or die” tradition, so when the forest fire closures lifted, we decided to pick a fall date and go for it. [Note: by “do or die,” I mean that we pick a date and hike Humphreys without training for it. We drive up, hike, and drive back in one day.] Our “do or die” approach is not something I recommend because the hike is a pretty strenuous one. Humphreys Peak is the highest point in Arizona, sitting at 12,633 ft (3,851 m), so altitude sickness is a real concern. According to my Garmin (cycling computer that tracks distance, elevation, and other workout statistics), the hike is a total of 10.2 miles round trip. Elevation gain is around 3,500 ft (1,067 m).

Three things stand out to me from this year’s Humphreys hike: 1) it was really cold and icy on the trail going up, 2) it was SUPER WINDY (and cold) on the summit, and 3) my legs were TIRED at the end. One positive thing about doing this hike in October vs July is that there were absolutely none of the little bugs (gnats?) that are always swarming the summit…probably because of the SUPER HIGH WIND. The wind was so strong that it blew me off-trail several times and almost knocked my phone out of my hand while I was taking photos.

It was a great day despite the wind and cold and I got my hard-earned fries at the end!

  • Early in the hike and there’s already snow!
  • The meadow sign that says we were at 11,400 ft elevation.
  • Finally reached the saddle! Only about a mile or so till the top…
  • The summit!
  • Crystal, Ellie, and me. We’re smiling, but dang, we were cold because it was SO WINDY!
  • Beautiful view from the top.
  • Doesn’t look like Arizona.
  • I’m bent over like that because of the strong wind.
  • Another beautiful view.
  • Starting the hike down.
  • This is at the trailhead. You could still see the yellow aspens.
  • Tired, but victorious. And so very attractive. 😉

Here ends part 1 of my “catch-up blog post.” Stay tuned for part 2!