Tons of snow! Welcome to Arizona. Not much climbing or running to be had in these conditions. I think I might climb in the gym later today (Yes...on Christmas!).

Rim to Rim to Rim

Was thinking of doing R2R2R in the Grand Canyon on Christmas Day but way to much snow for me. I will have to wait a little while on this one...

Trip to Phoenix

Yay! My first blog. I hope you all enjoy my ramblings.

Today Susan and I got up way to early and drove the 2 hours from snowy and cold Flagstaff to always sunny and warm Phoenix. Susan is going home to Chicago for Christmas so I was dropping her off at the airport. Normally, I don't get to psyched to go to PHX (I think that place is gross) but I wanted to see Susan off and give her some last minute loving before she was gone for a week. Susan, see ya soon and love you.

After she entered the airport I drove off to sample one of the trails near Scottsdale (suburb of PHX) for some trail running. I figured that if I was already down in PHX I should at least do something before driving the 2 hours back to Flag.

The trail I chose is in the Mcdowell Sonoran Conservancy and was better than expected with lots of elevation gains (about 2,500 ft. in total) and really nice singletrack throughout. The desert was full of just about every kind of cactus I know of and the views of the city were actually quite nice (smog and all) from the many lookouts. I think I would like to come down more often in the winter and explore more trails. Especially on a day like today where it is 30 degrees in Flag and snow everywhere and 60 degrees in Phoenix and sunny and dry. I ran about 12 miles in total and it felt just right today.

Here are some photos of the Mcdowell Mountains.

Very nice!

It took me 3.5 hours to get back to Flag because of traffic...Oh yeah...that's why I live in Flag and never go to Phoenix.