Top of the Rock

I  look out the window at our now snowcovered yard , drinking a margherita and longing for the weather I just came from, just 12 hours ago. I just got home from a long weekend "sister getaway" to Scottsdale, Arizona.  It was great. We laughed, we lounged by the pool, flirted with the cutepool boys, drank margheritas,  went for a  run in shorts (kind of a big deal for those of us living in the Northwest), shopped DSW , bought a cute pair of sandals, and the best part...hiked Camel back mountain, twice..
The "twice" part was not part of the plan but the first day, but I will get to that. It was forecasted to be  87 degrees. We were told it was only an hour one way. We each took a water bottle. We are both pretty fit and figured, "ha, no problem". We got this.

 This is sis at the trailhead.  We took the Cholla trail because it was supposed to be less roack scrambling. Neither of us had any previous experience rock climbing so we figured this might be more appropriate for our skill level.  We took our spot in the crowd of others also ready to take on the infamous mountain.  I had heard it was a crowded place to hike but I really  no idea how bad it was. It took us 20 minutes to find parking, about a 1/2 mile away.

Sis drinking the last of ALLthe water we had packed- shouldn't be too much further though....

The trail is sand and rock, some of it sharp , some of it smooth and covered in just enough sand to make the footing slick. We hiked for about a half hour and thought we could see the top. We thought we were about at the halfway point. We are still having a good time, nonetheless...



We kept on hiking and kept thinking it was just another corner, another short climb...we had to be close to the top ....

 This is a peek at where we had just come....

 The problem is , this is where we still had yet to go...plus more climbing  that is NOT captured in this photo....

All  I could think was  CLIFFHANGER... (the movie)

At this point, dear ol ' sis who is a vegetarian that had not eaten that morning and had not had enough to drink , and has been hospitalized for heat exhaustion was  really struggling.. We sat and rested for a bit to see if she could continue but I could clearly see she was not feeling well. her heart rate would not come down. She's a nurse but I am an endurance rider. I know all too well what that meant..We were done.. I had visions of her being airlifted off the mountain and maybe this is a bit selfish but I did not want to spend the rest of my vacation watching over a family member in a hospital. I  decided  we were going to turn back and head down...

So, DAY 1 , Camelback  was not conquered...

Sis may be a bit less durable , but she is still my sister and is almost as stubborn as me.. She wanted to get to the top. She was bound and determined...  so we made a plan to return the next day, equipped with more water and she promised to eat in the morning to fuel up appropriately....

And we did. We climbed and climbed. We made it past the point of which we had turned back at the day before. Sis reported she was "fit to continue" so we did.. We were in for a bit of a surprise. The climbing became quite a bit tougher. No longer was there a trai but boulders that had to be scrambled over. Neither of us had ever been rock climbing, before today. But scrambled we did and eventually... we made it....and joined the large crowd of others (50-60 people) at the top of the rock.

It took us two tries, but we made it...

CAMELBACK... CONQUERED...

check it off the bucket list...