Last weekend I was over at Vance and Jessica's house and we pretty much did nothing all day. Went to Taco Del Mar, got some fish tacos, later went to Taco Bell, got some chicken tacos, sat around in between. We talked about how lazy we were and laughed as we were each sprawled out on a couch. Then Jessica said "we need to do something...let's go on a hike!" I was totally up for that but we were losing daylight and weren't really ready for that. So we all decided that we would hike the Superstitions, the Flat Iron trail the next Saturday, June 13. Man were we in for it! Our hike began at 6am at the Siphon Draw trail head in the Superstition Wilderness area and led us to the base of The
Supes in the Tonto National Forest. It was fairly cool for Arizona in June and the clouds passing by helped protect us from the sun on our way to the top. I would say it was 80 when we started, in the 70's at the top and triple digits on the way down.

Here's a view of our destination from the base of the mountain. That peak in the center of the picture is Flat Iron. At this point we were feeling good about the trail. We weren't really tired yet. Just moments after this, when we started to ascend, was when we realized what we got ourselves in to. We had three different groups pass us on the first quarter of the mountain part of the trail. Including an old lady that we saw disappear in to the mountain. We found out how out of shape we are. Vance and Jessica said that it was hard on their lungs and my problems were in my legs. They were burning so bad like I was constantly squatting on the way up. I've been hiking on hunting trips but nothing to this extent and have now decided I'm to heavy and need to lose at least 30lbs.

See the person in the front? That's the older lady that had passed us! Well on our way up we some how got off of the easiest path up and veered right to a more difficult one. To best describe it in short it was, less hiking and more climbing. And not just small rock faces but loose boulder gardens. We are serious boneheads. Well just as we were getting to the top, Vance realized that he had lost his camera so we were all bummed and decided to forget about it at the moment and take in the view from the top.

I usually get a lot more and better scenic pictures but I think the fatigue and the thought of going back down the hard way to try and find the camera, I wasn't supposed to think about , got to me.

At the top! Vance and Jessica with a little bit of
AJ and Gold Canyon in the Background.

And me...all 260lbs, slouched over in pain but satisfied with my accomplishment. One thing I really enjoyed at the top was the cool breeze hitting my sweaty shirt. *SIGH*...it was wonderful. You can actually see the trail head in this picture. At the lower left corner of the pic there is a faint trail, that is actually the size of a dirt road, that runs along the corner of those houses and leads to the parking area which is those circles and yes it's the farthest one. Oh ya, and get a good look at that belly because it's
gona be gone after this summer.

And here is V and J heading back down the hard way. And no...didn't find the camera but did find out what our bodies were capable of, even when out of shape!