Piestwa Peak

 I barely squeezed in a August hike on the last day of the month.  After dropping Bea off at preschool I went straight to this trail in Scottsdale, hiked it, and went straight back to pick Bea up with a few minutes to spare.

Our group hiked this trail twice back to back a year ago to train for the Grand Canyon.  It is so hard.  Like really hard.  Just one mile up and one mile back but it's steep and rocky.  An 1,100 ft incline.  It was brutal.  And sooo good.

At the top I stopped for a breather and was able to talk to a couple other athletes.  One girl is a tail runner and has run up to a half marathon, the other an older guy who is visiting from Chicago and has run ultras.  I recommended hiking the Grand Canyon rim to rim and they both said it's on their goal list.  One of my goals is to run an ultra - over a marathon distance.  Maybe a 30 miler, and we'll see if it goes further than that like a 50 or a 100.  Training for even a marathon is such a time commitment.

^ ^ Feeling fresh before the hike. ^ ^

^ ^ Dripping in sweat and proud after the hike. ^ ^

I started Runkeeper app from the car.  The pace goes in line with the incline.  Much harder that last quarter mile.  It took about 40 minutes to hike up, and 27 minutes to come down.  Plan on doing this hike again before the Grand Canyon again this year.