| rev:text
| - I work out almost every day indoors, but was feeling like doing something different exercise-wise. It had been a while since I went on a hike so when my friend asked me if I wanted to go hiking to one of her favorite spots how could I refuse?
There are several trails at the Phoenix Mountain Preserve. The one we went on took about 30 minutes each way at a fast paced walk and led up to the satellite tower on top of the mountain. It was a mix of flat dirt paths and loose rocks with some steeper inclines. I'd say it was a moderate hike, and easy enough that some people were bringing their dogs with them on the trail (Be sure to bring your own poop bags through, no one wants to see your dog's dirty deeds while hiking!). For larger working breed dogs this would be a good hike but probably not so much for small dogs. The nice thing about this trail vs. another one I went on a while back is while there are a few cacti off to the side I didn't see a lot of cholla or cactus pads actually on the trail. There weren't any dangerous critters that I saw (And my friend can attest that she hasn't encountered any while she's hiked here so they are uncommon). While I was hiking I saw some cottontails, a soaring hawk gliding through the air, and Gambel's quail.
If you go at a brisk pace and aren't used to hiking steeper trails you might get a bit winded due to the incline and the increase in elevation. I certainly did while going with my friend who hikes this trail fairly often. She zipped up those steep slopes with the lung capacity and prowess of a Himalayan sherpa, while I was huffing and puffing, legs burning, mouth dry and parched trying to keep up with her. I'd like to think I'm fairly fit, but this was a cardio workout for me!
The view up top is quite beautiful. You get to see a spectacular view of the city, and if you go at the right time you can watch the sun set over Phoenix.
The hike back was nice as the weather got a bit cooler but you do have to be a bit careful of the loose rocks on the trail. I slipped a few times but luckily caught myself from falling. I was impressed by some of the bicyclists that go on this trail. I'm not as much of a daredevil as they are to go zooming down those slopes!
To be honest, I personally probably wouldn't go on this trail alone. While there are markers on certain points of the trail, there are a few trails that intersect each other and since I have absolutely no sense of direction I'd probably go back the wrong way and end up as one of those lost hikers you see on the evening news. I actually did start to go down the wrong part of the trail back to the car a few times but luckily my friend has a better sense of direction than me!
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)