It's all craziness: Hiking Through Residency

Today was the first of many hikes that I will take while in Tucson. Sarah (my co-resident) and I headed up to Mount Lemmon for a hike. It was a nice way to get out of the heat.

This may have been a little bit of an ambitious first hike, but we survived :)

Trail stats:

Distance: 8.6 miles

Trailhead elevation: 9100 feet

Elevation loss/gain: 2100 feet

The loop of course started out with the easier part, heading down hill. It was cool atop Mt. Lemmon today. I was happy to be wearing pants and a long sleeve shirt. At the beginning of the hike, the mountain is covered with pine trees and wildflowers.

It rained on us some in the beginning of the hike - HUGE raindrops! Well...actually not raindrops. Turned out it was HAIL. That's right, I got hailed on in Tucson in the middle of August.

Storm Clouds

Proof - HAIL!

After hiking down 2100 feet the vegetation changed and became more desert like in nature. The sun came out and the sweating began. eww.... At this point, about 6 miles in I was still feeling pretty good.

Then the ascent began. Let's just say it was much quicker than the descent had been. My right calf was burning and I was sucking wind and could feel the elevation. We had approximately 2 miles of switch backs to the top where we had originally started. It started to rain, but it felt good - cooled me off some. The view from this side of the loop trail was GORGEOUS!!! It was amazing and completely worth it.

Of course the picture doesn't do the view justice!

A horrible picture of us on our hike - nice.

By the time we reached the top I was exhausted. Poor Sarah who drove home, watched my head bob like a bobble head in the seat next to her, trying to stay awake. It's 8pm now - my legs still feel like spaghetti. I think I'll be in bed and passed out by 8:30pm. It ended up being a great hike, but probably a little much for my first hike in a while.

Bugs on the trail: