traciedjessop – Page 2 – Tracie D. Jessop

Mt Lemmon ? Aspen Trail and Marshall’s Gulch

Tackling Mt Lemon was harder than expected but it was a beautiful day.

The Mt. Lemon peak was different. We completed two trails in one hike, one of them completing our 6 hike AZ Hiking Summer Hiking challenge and earning our prize pack. The other adding peak number 5 of 20 for our 20 peak challenge.

The requisite stats: we ticked off 9.2 miles and climbed 2200 feet total on this hike. We started at the Aspen Loop trailhead and made our way up to meet the arm for the up and back portion which took us to the Mt. Lemmon peak (sort of, the actual peak is fenced off by the U of A for research) then we make the return back to the Aspen Loop, Marshall Gulch portion of the trail and looped back to the trailhead.

It got hot. Up to almost 90 degrees today! That made the going a bit tough at times but once we were in shade on the loop trail we cooled off.

The wildflowers were not as plentiful on this hike as on others but there were still a good spattering of them, mostly along the loop.

There were several new species of butterflies, but really more moth like ones, still pretty with unique markings.

There were a lot of variety of fern on this hike and I was very attracted to the orange ones!

There were so many butterflies on the loop part of the trail ! They even fluttered over my head while I humped a fallen tree ?. We have to have some fun y’all!

These beautiful dragonflies were active around the water on the loop.

There was some fire damage in areas from the Aspen fire in 2003 and burned 84,750 acres. I always do love the textures left behind from the devastation.

This hike was full of sparkling pathways from the quartz in the ground here!

Greg considers Tucson his home. This hike brought him some great memories and views of his old stomping grounds.

Wild raspberries!!! My first! They were a delicious snack on the last leg of the hike as a storm was hot on our heals. I also found this ginormous mushroom!

We made it to the car, got our gear unloaded and hopped in the car just as the first big drops began to fall. The drive back down the mountain with the windows down, cool air and fresh smell of rain made for a very refreshing ride

This blackbird posed for me like a pro.

Our after hike meal landed us randomly at a Mexican spot, Poco and Mom’s. I had the cheese enchiladas, Christmas style, with a pricklie pear margarita and the Mr. had the green chicken chili enchiladas and a mango habanero margarita, this place was fabulous! I will definitely add them to my Arizona map!

The AZ Hikers Summer Hiking challenge was the first challenge we set for ourselves and now the first completed!

We hiked 39.53 miles to complete this challenge and a total of 7,150 feet in elevation gains! (including the Mt. Lemmon portion that was not part of the challenge)

A new pocket pallet

5 years ago By traciedjessop

I carry almost an entire art supply closet in my purse. ??. Ok, not really, but so,Erika’s it feels that way so I’m always looking for a new gadget to control the weight. I had been eyeballing these little tiny paint pallets for a while and this week I finally got myself one!

I admit I was a little giddy unboxing this little guy.

You can choose from a small selection of already filled pallets or go with an empty one and use your own paints. I decided to go with this color collection of Daniel Smith because it already had some of the colors I already have but some I wanted to give a try too. I also ordered a set of empty trays.

The bottom is magnetic so you can re-arrange to your hearts content!

This is the giant pallet I was carrying before!

Here I was playing around with how I wanted to arrange and which colors I wanted to use. I tried to pare down the number of colors I was carrying but I really just ended up filling it up within a few days. 🙂

*update after using for a few weeks, I’m Loving it! It wouldn’t be hard to get some dirty paints if you’re using larger brushes, but mostly I’m using less than an 8 round when out and about. That’s probably mostly a problem for the ocd’ers out there. :). I’m working on a sister post about my full kit. Stay tuned!

Finally . . . The Mr. went kayaking…

5 years ago By traciedjessop

I’ve been kayaking for several years with regularity and due to Greg’s health, and a slight disinterest, he’s never gone with me . . .until today! (and he really enjoyed it!)

We went with my usual gang of thugs, meeting at water users at 6:30 am; after shuttling and prep we were on the river around 7:30. The earlier the better in my opinion on this river.

There were storm clouds around us mist of the day and we got a beautiful rainbow out of it.

There are always a few dozen vultures along the river.

The morning horse viewing is the best.

Lots of babies were out today.

Caught a sometimes elusive roadrunner today.

Not a lot to say about these trips, but I love sharing all the photos from my trips. Today was a great time with my Mr on the river with me and I look forward to more days like this !

By the way, we put in at Water Users and paddled 12.5 miles to the final take out for the Salt River, Granite Reef.

Escudilla Mountain, you tried to kill me but I won!

5 years ago By traciedjessop

I’ll start with the usual stats before I tell you how I felt about this one. ?

Located along the Arizona-New Mexico border just outside a little town called Nutrioso, this area was devastated by fire in 2011. On this trail we *clocked* 7.74 miles to the official peak with an elevation gain of 1,554 feet topping at 10,877 feet at the peak. This peak is listed as the 3rd highest in Arizona and is the 4th one we have completed.

*(our “clocking’ does not always exactly match what you find about here trails online. We think it could be an minor inaccuracy with our devices, for the sake of being transparent).

This trail wastes no time with the climb in elevation but has a very even distribution of climbs and level hiking making the section up the fire tower not too difficult, save for the much thinner air with the starting elevation just under 10,000 feet.

The wildflowers were abundant and here was a wide variety of colors with much of the earliest section of the trail being lined generously. Plenty of beautiful butterflies, including a totally new one I hadn’t seen before and a few little lizards.

More giant dandelions, lol. Can you tell I’m a little obsessed with these?

Strangest sighting of the day: a bee flying around with a little leaf stuck to his butt. ? he could have been hanging on to it intentionally but I really don’t know. ??

As previously stated, in 2011 this area was devastated by fire and the effects are still very visible today. The main trail itself has been cleared and the deadfall (downed trees) has been cut through all the way up to the Fire tower lookout. Many sections of the trail either is either lined by fields of deadfall or fields of young aspen and pine. These scenes were a sight to see, the deadfall fields could be eerie and solemn while the lush new growth reminds you that new things and grow from total devastation.

This Pano is the best idea of the expanse of devastation that remains years later. Hopefully you can view it in a large format.

Now, here is where the trail becomes it’s most challenging section, once at the fire lookout you are not at its official peak. There is a ridgeline from the fire tower up to the official tallest peak and this section of the trail is NOT cleared and cut from the fire. What exactly this meant was really not as clear as we thought! So, you might wonder?

First let me preface that our ide of where this part of the trail was to pick up was not as informed as it should have been, so on the first little start here we blazed our own and this involved a nightmarish scene of millions of knats swarming us through this section of young aspen. There was screaming involved and maybe a few tears. ??

Once we got past the tiny forest of knats, we came to this horrific realization that this part was a lot more than we had mentally prepared for but we pushed forward. It took us 1 hour and 20 minutes to traverse the 1 mile of dead fallen trees and rocks. We used our poles for balance and the fear of impalling ourselves was very real.

Here we are at the cairns with the tin can containing the register for those brave enough to come this far. It was a satisfactyinh feeling to put my name in that book. I should have signed with a coo,ent “y’all some crazy m’fers”!

From the finish line, it was much easier to find the complete path back to the turn off where we SHOULD have turned for this section, we aren’t really sure how we missed he huge milk jug marking it! But we added a cairne to the marker. LOL. This return from the peak on,y took us 50 minutes so it would have made a big difference to void the lair of knats. LOL

Here is a collection of he various burn patterns I noticed during the hike.

The cool temperatures made the day pleasant and on the return we had a little thunderstorm brewing on our heals only catching a few sprinkles along the way. We are looking forward to monsoon season brewing here in the valley and he upcoming hikes will require a bit more prep for these unexpected storms.

Since the trailhead was more remote than the usual we waited until we got back in to Show low to have a nice early prime rib dinner at Cattleman’s Steakhouse and Lounge. The prime ribs were quite delicious for their Friday special and some standard local drafts washed them down.

Mt. Kendrick y’all!

5 years ago By traciedjessop

Mount Kendrick is located just north of Flagstaff and is listed #4 on the Top 20 Peaks Challenge, and #4 on the #sixpackofpeaks Challenge! We clocked in 9.37 miles and 2,549 feet in elevation, with top elevation of 10,422 feet.

We found the trail to be well maintained and not very heavily trafficked. There we no facilities at the trail head. No time is wasted, he climb kicks off right off the bat too!

This area was damaged by fire in 2000 and the new growth is starting to take off in many of the areas but still very evident even all these years later.

This is a picture that shows the baby trees starting to fill in the damaged areas.

This trail probably has the strongest showing of wildflowers that I’ve seen so far! These little wild roses have some mean little thorns!

This guy here… let me just tell you that if I ever feel like giving up (in life, not just on the trail) this guy is always there to cheer me on and push me to push myself. How can I not reach the finish line with him behind me cheering me on?! Ok… that’s all the sappy, y’all !

On each hike I find at least one new species of butterfly! They can be quite hard to catch, but I think I manage to capture at least one shot of each one I see ?

The atmosphere hiking through a previously burned forest trail can be quite eerie. In the below two pics, I actually did not put any filter on those. Not sure why they came out like this but it certainly conveys the mood.

This little cabin sits a short distance from the fire tower and you’ll actually arrive here before you reach the peak. We stopped here to check it out and photographed it on the way back down.

More giant dandelions and some absolutely amazing views.

These pink flowers are actually white when open and seems as though they were open in the morning and when we were making our way back I noticed they were closed up!

We had an amazing lunch on the patio at Diablo Burger in Flagstaff. This meal did not disappoint and I have leaned they are opening a location here in Phoenix and there is one in Tucson also! I had the burger ‘Traveling Wilbury’s with a a really good beer that I should have made note of, but didn’t. That burger was Devine. Greg had the house burger and a Pilsner and also very much enjoyed his meal.

Another top 20 in the books as well as another #sixpackofpeaks !

Mt. Elden

5 years ago By traciedjessop

On this beautiful summer Sunday morning, which also happens to be day 1 of our stay-cation, we headed up to Flagstaff to beat the heat and tackle our second mountain on the 20 peaks challenge!

The sun rays on this early morning sky were spectacular!

Mt. Elden is a mountain literally on the edge of downtown Flagstaff, a well maintained trail and very popular with the local regulars so it is a busy trail. We got to the trailhead early so we luckily got a spot in the parking lot and we set out right at about 8 am. (by the way, there are no facilities at this trailhead.

A view of the tower from the start.

We saw a lot of lizards on this trail and of course, tons of beautiful wildflowers and birds.

Lots of beautiful views that overlook the town of Flagstaff.

Some amazing views of the San Francisco peaks and Mount Humphries, which is an upcoming hike!

Ok, I fell. Ok, I fell a few times on this trail. 4 times to be exact and all on the downhill. This trail has a lot of loose gravel and I never even noticed on the way up, but I sure did on the way down, so be careful! Lol. Btw, I’m ok, it turned into an ugly bruise.

This guy had a big fat grasshopper for lunch while we watched ?

The dandelions our here are HUGE!

Honestly, this has not been a particularly memorable trail by way of views of difficulty really. The proximity to town and views of it did not give me all the feels as far as being out away from the bustle of the city and it was much more heavily trafficked. But it was certainly still enjoyable and challenging in its own right.

On this peak trail we clocked 5.93 miles and 2,233 feet in elevation gain and at the top of the peak you stand at and elevation of 9,299 feet. This Peak also has a fire lookout tower. Mount Eldon checked off 2 challenge hikes, it is a #sixpackofpeaks as well as #14 on the Top 20 Peaks Challenge.

We enjoyed a fabulous lunch at Beaver Street Brewery in Flagstaff where we both had the daily special of a good old fashioned French dip and a couple of their delicious beers, of course. If I’m giving an honest review here, this brewery did not stand out to me. It wasn’t bad, but it was just standard. I’m not sure if i’ll Come back mainly because there are several other outstanding spots in the area.

Summiting Arizona….

5 years ago By traciedjessop

I think it’s always a good thing to break out of your comfort zones, push yourself, challenge your mind and your body. Of course, the last few years for us have challenged us in many ways for sure but in the more difficult, life throwing hardballs, kind of way.

This year, Greg kicked off his year in a kicking ass and taking names kind of way, loosing 35-40 pounds in 2 months. This weight loss resulted in amazing healing in his feet and hip which had been problematic ever since chemo treatments.

During our trip to Japan we did so much walking and Greg was so energized by his improved mobility that when we got home we made it a goal to go hike every weekend to keep moving and start seeing more of this beautiful state.

As you can see from my previous posts, we have done great at meeting that goal and in the words of Greg’s mom… “they’re hikers now”. LOL

As Greg was researching trails to explore and through the Arizona Hikers Facebook page, he discovered a few great websites that highlight some amazing hikes and host challenges throughout the year.

Over recent weeks we had been focusing on two challenges, the AZHikers Summer Hiking Challenge (which is a Facebook group) and the #Sixpackofpeaks Summer Challenge.

Yesterday we hiked the first of a personal challenge we have set for ourselves found on the list of lists for hiking at Peakbagger.com. The Arizona 20-20 Peaks Challenge consists of the 20 highest peaks in Arizona.

No pics to see here, just giving the deets on our goals and a lil background on how we for anyone who might even care. ?????? cheers!

Ready, set, go. . .

5 years ago By traciedjessop

Today we completed the first of our 20 peak challenge. O’Leary Peak is listed as #20 in the Arizona 20 Peaks challenge. It’s number 20 because it is the easiest of the peaks we will summit over the coming year. It was not the hardest hike we’ve done recently though, Bear Mountain in Sedona has been the hardest so far.

As usual, we set out at the crack of dawn, heading for Flagstaff today. This view of Red Mountain and Four Peaks is my favorite.

O’Leary is a 5 mile out and back trail that climbs approximately 2000 feet in elevation and summits at the O’Leary Peak ‘complex’ as described to us by the fire watch lady, Pam. The trail is from a fire tower access road and is completely gravel all the way to the fire lookout tower, making the terrain very easy traverse.

The trail was lined with wildflowers and baby trees. The area is also made up of lava fields and long -blown volcanos so some of the terrain reflects that.

We had some amazing views of the San Francisco Peaks, the tallest of which is Humphries Peak (which is the #1 hike on the 20 Peaks challenge and we will be summiting his year!). #hikinggoals

I’m drawn to wildflowers like a magnet and today’s walk was full of them! Did you know I carry a small sketchbook that I use to collect wildflowers on all my hikes? Be on the lookout for a post about that and how I plan to use them in my artwork.

Weirdest sight of the day for me was this hollow bumble bee carcus that was just stuck to the side of a tree!

Some of the stretches were long steep winding climbs which could get a bit difficult at times.

Here’s a special steel plating to help make the final climb to the watch tower.

I told him to stop looking so “macho”, he said it’s hard to not look macho when you’re standing on the top of a mountain. #istandcorrected LOL

It has become our tradition to crack a beer at the summit of each climb. It’s not just refreshing but it is also a good carb-load to get us back to the car! LOL

Much to my delight there were a flurry of beautiful butterflies at the summit dancing for us while we took our lunch break. I also discovered a hidden nest of ladybugs under the bush by our spot.

A southern girl at heart, I have settled here in the desert as if were always my home. The very common questions I get about my move here revolve around how I can live around all the brown, lack of seasons or how can I stand the heat.

What most people fail to realize is that the desert is not brown, we do have more than two seasons and when the summer heat gets tough, we can always take a 2 hour drive to any number of mountain towns and enjoy some cooler temps for a weekend or even just a day.

When I’m hiking in these beautiful green pine wildernesses and lush green deserts, I never feel like I’m missing out on a thing. And today, the cicadas were screaming just like “home”!

The all downhill return was easy and much quicker. I’ve heard people don’t care for this trail much as it may not be very challenging or “exciting”. I can see that, but it was still a climb and had some amazing views.

Our after hike meal at Lumberyard Brewing Co. was delicious, as always. I had he Vietnamese Burger w/ fries. That was one scrumptious burger!! I can’t wait to have another! I had the Hazy IPA also, which was a nice not to strong IPA.

We will be heading back to flagstaff soon as we have several more challenge peaks to tackle here, including this one, Eldon Peak.

This was me at mile 7.5 on the downhill having a little fun. LOL.

We have hiked a total of 79.93 miles in 70 days (4/14/19)

1 of 20: Arizona 20peaks challenge

-O’Leary Peak (#20)

4 of 4 (with a #5 bonus hike left to go): Arizona Hikers Summer Challenge

-Spruce Mountain (#4)

-Soldier’s Pass Big Loop(#3)

-Thompson Trail (#5)

-O’Leary Peak (#2)

2 of 6: #sixpackofpeaks Summer Challenge

-Bear Mountain (#1)

-O’Leary Peak (#3)

June StationEry Unboxing!!

5 years ago By traciedjessop

This months box is so full of awesomeness y’all!!!

My monthly stationery subscription box from The Stationery Selection is always a fun day if you’re a supply nerd like myself! ?. So, without further ado . . .

TA daaa…. the items in this month box are great for packing packages (and I have a few of my people I owe to some packages! Wink wink)

A spool of Avril Yarn is probably my favorite item from his months selection. The story of the yarn is born of a Japanese tradition I learned of when researching our trip to japan. I fail to find the proper specific term for it at this moment but the practice spans across many textiles. The essence of the practice is to not waste. Items that may be broken can be mended, items deemed unsuitable for their original purpose may be reused in another form. (broken bowls may be repaired in an artful manner and scrap textiles may be mended into new).

Whew. That was probably a lot just to tell you about this yarn! LOL The yarn is basically the discarded yarns considered unusable as produced for their original purpose. This yarn makes a great string for wrapping packages! I’ll update with a picture of it when I wrap my packages.

I really love this felt pen/marker !

A sheet of Stickers and TWO stamps plus an ink pad!

Here sheets scrapbook paper are awesome! One sheet is more like a textured fabric with an adhesive backing! The rest are nice and slick.

And I’m swooning over this grid tape!!

Next month I’ll provide more specifics on each product, I missed grabbing that info from the packaging this month! Sorry!!!

Please close the gate behind you . . .

5 years ago By traciedjessop

Today was an amazingly beautiful day, as are most of our hiking days! Today we drove 4 hours to hike Thompson trail, fire road 116 just outside of Showlow/Pinetop, near Big Lake. It was a bit long of. Drive for a 5 miler, but the trail is one of the Arizona Hikers Summer hiking challenge and a group was meeting to tackle it together so we decided to go for it.

This was our first group hie so it was an easy one to get our “feet wet” with so to speak. Lol. This was also the wettest hike we’ve had, we both got our feet a tiny bit wet and muddy. Nothing major though.

The temperatures were a welcomed cool start in the low 60s, probably only reaching a high in the mid 70s, but ending back in the 60s with the cloud cover that came in. The hike was really more like a long walk along a small creek through the woods and some meadows.

On the front end of the hike you’ll encounter the gate… don’t forget to close it behind you, as requested! 🙂

I was most impressed on this hike by all the Iris! They lined the creek all along the way, it was kind of hard to resist taking pictures of all of them. Heehee

At almost he halfway point maybe? Here is an opportunity to climb a little hill (his is where we got most of our elevation gain on this hike, which totaled just over 300 feet by the way), from the top of this hill you can see the creek wind off into the distance for an amazing view. I’m anxious to get back here for a very early morning photo session..

The wildflall along the trail were so beautiful and begging to be photographed.

It really was hard to pick favorites of this view and it was difficult not to stop every 30 feet to record the large scale beauty!

Even in black and white, the majestic beauty is stunning.

I even got two lucky butterfly shots, I was really excited about the orange one! I’ve never captured one of these guys before.

One of the group members captured and shared a few shots of us as well.

I really look forward to our hikes each weekend. The time we are getting together is priceless, not only now, but for our future health and beyond that the memories!

I am planning to come back here and camp one weekend this summer so I can spend some early morning and late evening time photographing this area properly!

Weird, wacky & wild art tools, Adult Art Camp! Week 2

5 years ago By traciedjessop

My favorite artist teacher, Katherine Kurgan-Hoffmeyer — hosted a summer full of Adult Art camp classes at Arizona Art Supply this summer, 8 glorious weeks of art camp! I cleared the time off with my boss and signed up for every week!

We missed week two because the teacher got strep! 🙁

“Wild and Wacky Tools” officially kicked off Adult Art camp. Today was more about relaxing, playing with new ideas and thinking outside the box.

We had a great workspace set-up (as always) with acrylic and watercolor paints, string, ball chains, q-tips, baby wipes (Katherine’s favorite clean up tool!).

The first project was string art only using a ball chain instead of a string for some great effects!

Next up, Q-Tip trees! I really love Katherine’s technique for tree trunks!

I was fairly happy with how my cherry tree turned out ? I really need to loosen up with my tree trunks!

Katherine Kurgan-Hoffmeyer ‘s work is below. Not my artwork. She demonstrated using cookie cutters for a fast way to get a consistent design.

Today’s class was a fun warmup and I am looking forward to the rest of the summer full of exploring and experimenting!!

Sketchbooks and Paint Palettes and Pen Cases, OH MY!

5 years ago By traciedjessop

If I’m counting, this is sketchbook number 17, but who’s counting? Lol. Really though, the early half of those are more from my earlier graphic and web design notes and layouts more than sketches.

So, as I begin my newest journal, I realized I’m beginning to have a process/method for setting them up and wanted to memorialize my current process. Just before I was ready to set up a new sketchbook I also received a new little pocket watercolor pallet, which I wrote an entry on ________.

Also, previously I have been using the Moleskine Watercolor notebook, portrait 5×8. I’ve been happy with them. But truth be told, my fav watercolor paper is Arches, but they only come in pads. I have tried making my own homemade books, but I am more content with the bound book for some reason.

For this new sketchbook I decided to give the Global Art Materials Speedball HandBook a try. I have a larger 8×8 version which I keep on my studio desk and use for occasional play and experimenting. I’ve liked the heavier feel and I think this paper absorbs he watercolors nicely. We shall see!

On the inside cover I stamp my business card. I created a stamp that has all my deets which I use for my homemade business cards (blog coming soon).

For my first page, in the past I have been painting my current purse pallet right on the page. I’m finding I’ve been experimenting with my pallets so much they keep changing so this time I used a postcard and photo corners so I can change it out if my pallet changes. I’ll still keep my original ones in the book somewhere.

In the back cover, there’s usually an attached pocket, where I like to keep stickers, my business cards, any little ephemera or loose notes, pictures, etc.

Also, on the last page I put another postcard with photo corners. I started doing this with my last sketchbook and it proved to be very useful! For what, you ask? I used it for testing colors, strokes, etc for any sketch I might be working on. I can take it out and have it in hand while working on the page I’m working and return it later! If it gets full or lost, I can replace it.

Lastly, a shot of my current little purse kit. I carry a scarf I found in a kimono shop in Hiroshima that I can’t wait to see all colored up! The three main brushes I use or Escoda Reserva 1214 Watercolor & Acrylic Kolinsky-Tajmyr Sable Paint Brush Travel Round she sizes 2, 4 and 8. I carry the small collapsible puppy water dish I found on amazon for my water. I’ve tried carrying little pill bottles but I’ve been happier with this one.

I also carry a pencil bagwith a few tools that will vary depending on what I’m experimenting with. I got this one in Japan, but my previous similar one came from Target. The one from target was minus the little zipper pocket. I keep extra pencil lead and erasers in the pocket now.

Right now I have a small selection of micro liners ( which I’m not happy with and am researching), a white gel pen, a small ruler, some masking fluid, pocket scissors and a few fountain pens, my favorite mechanical pencil, a Pentel Brush pen and a white pastel pencil. Also I have a few different brushes I randomly like to use. One I got in japan, is a fabric brush, silk, specifically, but I like using it for certain effects. Two are for fine limes and details the other is a filbert brush I seem to like.

I recently reduced the items I was carrying to try to lighten my load, but what I carry varries. I also carry a few other brushes but they do vary.

Well that’s it. I’m working on posting some highlights from each of my sketchbooks, I’ll cover my review of this ArtMaterials sketchbook and I’m going to be exploring micro liners soon, so stay tuned!

A bear of a Mountain

5 years ago By traciedjessop

Today we tackled the first of of the #sixpackofpeaks summer challenge! bear Mountain in Sedon is nothing to laugh at. It was tough. You’ll climb 1900 feet in the first 2.5 mile of the 5 mile in and out trail and total approximately 2051 feet in elevation in 4.92 total miles.

We started early, leaving Phoenix at 4:20 am and were on the trail by 7. The morning temperatures were nice and comfortable and stayed that way throughout this first hike of the day.

The wildflowers were really popping on the first .25 mile of the hike, I was certain to gather a small bouquet for later artwork on the way out 🙂

This is Bear Mountain from the false summit, we climbed to the top of the peak for the End mark.

The views were spectacular! The wildflowers really popped all the way up too.

I’ve certainly could have made better time but who can resist photographing these views ?!

Greg always manages to capture some shots of me!

The old trees on this trail were amazing I couldn’t resist a sappy hug.

After we finished we had some pizza and craft beer at Famous Pizza and Beer in Sedona. The pizza was pizza, the beer was draft and delicious and the meal made a great carb load for hike #2 for the day, Soldier’s Pass, Brin’s Mesa, Jordan and Cibola Loop.

Soldiers Pass, Brin’s Mesa, Jordan & cibola loop, OH MY!

5 years ago By traciedjessop

We took on this challenge trail for the #arizonahikers summier hiking challenge after completing the Bear Mountain hike from the #sixpackofpeaks summer hiking challenge! That made completing his challenge exceptionally difficult for me.

We did not get on this trail until after lunch, around 1 pm and the temps were at 91 degrees so not only were my legs and feet already well worn from hike one for the day, the heat was another challenge for this hike. Luckily, there were good stretches of the trails that offered some random shade for a break from the sun. 9amf strangers with sunblock!)

This hike added 5.37 miles and 960 feet in elevation to our day! And the flowers on the prickly pear were inspirational for future watercolors!

The Century Plants were absolutely stunning today! The reds were literally on fire! For those that might not know, a Century Plant only grows and blooms that tall stalk once in a century and then they die!

We came across this beautiful path lined with tiny purple flowers!

This Collared Lizard was the highlight of this hike and he is probably what put a bit of pepp back in my step to get me through this hike. I absolutely love finding wildlife that I haven’t seen before and this Collared Lizard was a new one for me! He gave us a show too and ran right under our feet!

I LOVE the pattern a on his body!

Ore great views and antique trees.

The dirt on those ankles is well earned and a classic sign of red rock hiking. Completing this hike was the most emotionally and physically challenging hikes I’ve ever completed, even though on its own it would not be quite as difficult.

This also ticks off hike the second hike for us in the #arizonahiking summer hiking challenge! Spruce Mountain by Groom Creek Loop was the first one we completed from that challenge which we did last Sunday!

A saguaro baby shower!

5 years ago By traciedjessop

It had been a while since I got to do a baby shower, so I was excited when I was asked to do one for another co-worker (though this one actually paid y’all!)

The theme was also a absolute favorites of mine, saguaro! Though the baby’s room will be Llama and Saguaro, I was asked to stay with the Saguaro theme for this one.

Here are the images provided to me by the hostesses of what the baby nursery is being decorated with to give me a starting point in my design.

I am learning to use my iPad as a design tool and for sketching it my ideas. Sometimes I really love the little images I end up with and sometimes they really don’t convey exactly what I want. The sketches on the left could be usable images in future projects and makes cute little images that could work for this project. The ones on the right, aren’t as clean as I would have them for a fina but I still like the ideas and may use them as well.

I decided in,y mock ups that I really wanted he watercolor look for this project because of the vision I was getting from the prompts I was given. So I then took my layout ideas and painted up some cactus images for he various elements I would be needing.

I then an annex them into my computer and used photoshop to enhance the colors to true and isolate the various elements.

After isolating my hand painted elements I played around with the composition in the layout using InDesign for a final draft of the invitation.

I am super happy with how this invitation turned out. :). I’ll be working on some decorations for he shower this week so stay turned….

Groom Creek Trail

5 years ago By traciedjessop

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!

May stationary selection Unboxing

5 years ago By traciedjessop

Subscription boxes are all the rage these days. Having tried a few different ones, mostly I think they are a rip-off, selling you items you may or may not use in a pretty package.

Art supply boxes get a lot of my attention for obvious reasons and I’ve tried a few. My favorite has been from The Stationary Selection. This subscription comes fromJapan and contains an amazing assortment of stationary found in various shops in Japan.

I started getting this box last fall. I should have been sharing these way before now, but nevertheless, here is the May unboxing….

I used a photo from pixelbunnie of the full contents, I forgot to take this shot myself…

During my visit to Japan, I could have spent several mortgage payments on art and stationary supplies easily! One of the things I had wanted to get while there was these personalized multi-color click pens, but for some reason just didn’t take the time to make color decisions! Lol. I kinda regretted not doing it, but guess what!?! I got one in this months box! And the colors were perfect. Black, meandering orange and one is a mechanical pencil! How about that? Lol (I’ll update and add a pic of the ink inserts inside the pen…)

I always love the different erasers! His moth has one that is inside a retractable little case with a cap and two refil erasers! That’s one of the things I love about this box, is when they have refillable items, they include refills for them!

Two other items, a pen case and a pocket sized ruler. The pen case is super slim as well as the little ruler.

Who doesn’t love washi?! There is almost always a roll of washi in this box. This month has little washi flake stickers and I’m sure there are different ones, mine were adorable.

Also included was a ‘To Do’ note pad by Midori. I was happy to get this, I’ve been wanting one for my daily notebooks for keeping lists. The new pen writes well on it too. I do need to work my penmanship. Lol

As always, looking forward to using my new supplies and next months box!

National trail to hidden valley to mormon loop !

5 years ago By traciedjessop

This morning we woke up at about 4:40 and headed out to the South Mountain Preserve for a sunrise hike. Today’s hike was not overly strenuous and we actually did a bit of running on the way out.

The trails are well traveled and popular with the mountain bikers so you’ll be sharing the trail. The views of the Valley were tremendous, especially with the morning sun!

I especially loved this view of Four Peaks and Red Mountain.

We saw a coyote wandering the neighborhood outside the entrance to the park, he did not like me stalking him. Lol. On the early leg of the hike you’ll find these old stone structures too. I didn’t investigate their origin yet….

We encountered a few little tunnels and a few areas that required some scaling and climbing to continue on the trail, some of the rocks were quite slick also.

There were tons of hummingbirds out and I was lucky to catch this little guy taking off from his perch. (with my cell phone!)

We could not get enough of the views!

Overall, this was a fun trail, finishing up at 6.47 miles and 873 feet in elevation gain, it made a moderately easy trail that I will look forward to hiking again!

Horton Creek

5 years ago By traciedjessop

Horton Creek is located about 16 miles north of Payson and is about a 2 hour drive for us. We left the house at 4:30 and after a back track trip to Walmart for a sweatshirt for him and some long underwear for me (it was a colder move than we were prepared for) we were on the trail by 7.

This was an 8 miles hike (4 to the springs and 4 back), in and out trail that follows Horton Creek so it has many riverside photo ops.

I love the peaceful feeling of walking through the woods in the early morning. The sounds of birds and, especially walking along this trail, the sounds of the creek running, the water pushing over the rocks. Breathing in deep breaths of fresh pine needle and occasional camper fires. Make me want to go camping!

I love light play and catching shadows..

Greg catches action shots of me all the time, I think this one is the best. He caught the scene out in front of me and my shot on the camera!

Horton Springs

8 miles with very little break time was tough but this go at the trail was much easier than my first try!

We stopped in Payson for lunch before driving home. We ate at the New York pizza and wings, it was standard bar food and a small selection of beers.

Lone Tree via Peralta Canyon Trail

5 years ago By traciedjessop

Today’s Sunday hike was a toughie for us. Lone Tree via Peralta Canyon Trail. Since the days are getting warmer here in the valley we made a early start of it, which we were thankful for as we ended the hike ay 90 degrees.

A 6 mile in and out trail with quite a climb at 1532 feet!