Hiking

I started hiking again last week.

 

I went two days last week and yesterday I made it to the summit of this mountain ( not sure of the name of that mountain)

This is the view looking south east at Camelback mountain

Today I thought I would tackle another mountain, Piestewa Peak

See the beast?

That, my friend, is Piestewa Peak

Doesn't look too high from the ground 

On my way to the trail head I passed a guy who was carrying his daughter in a backpack

Easy enough...so I thought

I set out on my hike

Lots of stairs to climb

I'm huffing and puffing only a few hundred feet up

Is it bad to be breathing out of my mouth so soon?

That old lady who just passed me doesn't look out of breath

I can do this!
 

This mountain is like the stair master from hell

I see benches!

No, I can't stop yet

Some dude just ran past me

How the hell does someone run up this thing?

Now I'm really panting. Sweat dripping off my forehead running into my eyes, ah, the burn!

Some lady just told me I'm almost there

I continue on...

 

It took me about an hour but I made it!

By the way...the lady that told me I was almost there was very wrong. 

I think I was only half way up

The final accent was all stairs!

Some guy said there were about 50 or so. I think there was 100 

For future knowledge, there are a ton of little green bugs flying around up at the top. 

I wanted to sit and enjoy (and hopefully not fall off the edge) but the darn bugs!

A few quick pictures before heading down

 It was an amazing view from the top!

This was looking north into Scottsdale 

I'm still deciding which mountain I will hike tomorrow but I will come back to this one next week!