Today’s hike brings us to Prescott, AZ where the weather will remain cool all day, much to our delight! We had about an hour and a half drive and we were on the train; at 8. This hike was are hardest yet in distance and elevation. We started at a higher elevation than we have started at too and climbed 1675 feet and went a total distance of 9.63!

This hike is also our first hike to complete for the #arizonahikers summer hiking challenge.

Greg surprised me on Saturday with a new daypack. Let me just say, this pack made ALL the difference in the world for carrying all my necessities for he day, plus plenty of water! I probably carried around 10 pounds and never felt a thing. Worth. Every. Penny. I ended up with the Gregory, Maya 16.

At the summit was a Fire lookout station, manned by the sweetest lady, Laura. She was very welcoming and showed us the sighting system she uses to try to pinpoint the area of a possible Forrest fire and she calls the, into the first services. Other area towers use similar systems to assist in triangulating accurate areas to search. Very very interesting to learn!

The area was also infested with newborn ladybugs! We got to watch the, whole we had lunch and a nice cold beer! It was a beautiful spot for a Sunday afternoon lunch!

The birds were very active along the trail also, though a bit difficult to capture without setting up for a while and taking your time. I did manage to capture a few blurry images of birds and a bushy tailed squirrel!

We ended the hike with some delicious fish n chips and a beer at Prescott Brewing Company. The fish batter was exc, by the way! We also stopped in Frozen Frannies (I always come here when in Prescott!) and got a scoop of coffee ice cream and Greg got a nitro brew with a scoop of coffee ice cream in it, THAT WAS FABULOUS!

You’re only as old as you feel! Today was amazing and we are looking forward to increasing our distances and seeing so many other great sights!

Next week we complete the second of the 5 #arizonahiking summer hiking challenge, Soldier’s Pass, Brin’s Loop, Jordan & Cibola Loop!