my knee. Guess I'll rest it for the week and see what happens. First 3 miles were awesome as I didn't feel a thing but after that, my knee started hurting and the last mile I had to try and hike keeping it straight. I shouldn't have done the New Year's Day hike as apparently my knee just wasn't fully recovered as it hurt for the rest of the week but felt good Sunday morning.

Reminds me of the time in 1998 I hurt my back laying paving stones. Got the PENS treatment, thot it was healed, went back to laying paving stones, hurt my back, never healed but enough to get by without surgery (bulging disc).

Anyway, hiked Ocotillo to Ridgeback to Sidewinder and finished on Ocotillo. Lots of bikers out today and quite a few hikers, one horseback rider. Trails seem to be in great shape.

The chance of precip was too high up north so back to Plan B, get up early and hike locally. I am still in prep mode for my Glacier Park backpack in a few weeks. Kelly came up with this route. A very nice alternative to Shaw Butte and same amount of drive time. Note to self, for monsoon weather hiking you are just going to have to get up at 5 (I did 5:30 AM today).

I was grateful for cloud cover and the occasional breeze from time to time. I did pull out my umbrella for the last mile though. I heard some coyotes and the cicadas were out as I came off of Ridgeback Overlook where I had stopped to edit some photos and do a FB post. There were a few others on the trail including several bike riders and other hikers and a couple runners that were glistening. Yep, the humidity was a little intense. The trail was in real nice shape.

This is my first monsoon hike of any substance and I lived to tell about it.
Oh, this is the first time that I can remember not putting ice in my water... prefer the ice.

Video - [ youtube video ] including Cicadas.

Well I got my new inserts today and decided to try them out. The trails weren't to busy today and the weather was perfect.
It was nice to get in a little longer hike and seeing so much more green than I am used to seeing.
I did see a few more birds as well.
My new inserts will take a little getting used to as my doctor found my left leg is almost a half inch shorter than my right leg. Now I am waiting for my new brace to go with it.

Today was all about Rowdy and the weather was as perfect as Rowdy could have asked for. We had cloudy skies all day with nice temperatures. We even got sprinkled on three different times. Now we never really got wet but we did get refreshed all three times who could ask for anything more.
We were taking a nice lunch break the first time it sprinkled on us and we did not move we just enjoyed it as we finished our lunch. The trails were really quiet today seen only one hiker and a couple of bike riders that was it. As far as wildlife birds only.
This was the hike that put Rowdy over 2000 miles for the year and it was perfect. This is really a nice hike for dogs.

Just time for a quick one in town today, so I thought I would try out some new trail. The trails out here are all really well manicured, but I think this must be a much better area for biking than hiking especially judging by who I found out on the trail. I made my way up the Apache Vista trail, cut around over to the Ridgeback Overlook, and then back to Apache Vista for one more up to try and squeeze as much elevation gain as I could for the hike. Hard to imagine these two 'peaks' were included in this year's version of the Phoenix Seven Summit Challenge, I feel like I would have gotten more effort out of the Hedgepeth Hills...I managed to keep a 3.7 mph+ pace even on the uphill sections without running at all. There are at least some nice views of the real mountains up in Cave Creek from here.

What a beautiful afternoon for a hike. Rowdy was in heaven with the cooler temperatures and a nice breeze.
We only saw one hiker on this beautiful day.

I was a little sad as I pulled into the trailhead I seen a beautiful Red-tailed Hawk on a dead bush. I stopped grabbed my camera and when I rolled down my window it just flew away. And it really looked great as it took off but I didn't get the picture just the memory, wow.

I had planned on a longer hike but at first water break I realized I forgot Rowdys water on the kitchen island.
So my water became his and I didn't drink any water on this hike.
So this hike was shorter than originally planned. The weather was great and the traffic on the trails was even better. We took our time and took extra breaks to makeup for the water shortage.

Strung together a bunch of SPN trails to create a longer than normal workout. Swung back by the trailhead for lunch under the ramada, changed socks and shoes and took off again. Not much breeze, but intermittent cloud cover helped.

Saw two Western DBacks along the trails in the afternoon. The first was the largest and most polite -- a soft gentlemanly rattle at about 5 feet. The last one was smaller and far more agitated. Gave them both a wide enough berth and pressed on.

Nice day to be on the trails. Now off to soak the dogs. They are certainly tired.

Wildflowers
Just the normal smattering of color.

Well I spent most of the day at the Mayo Clinic but did have a nice lunch at Bourbon Jacks Bar and Grill.
I made it home in time to take Rowdy out for a hike. The trailhead was a pretty busy for a work day. The weather was just awesome for a afternoon hike and Rowdy was a happy camper.

Wasn't planning on hiking today because of work. But a nice pilot offered to fly in my place. We slept in to recover from last night's festivities and then headed over to the Sonoran Preserve since I hadn't had time to plan anything better. Figured it would be crowded. That was definitely correct. Kids, dogs, bikes, and lot's of folks all enjoying a very nice day. Even with the crowded trails, the hike was much much better than the crowded airports. Definitely a good start to what I hope will be a fun year on the trails.