I know I've got to find some kind of peace of mind...

When the cardiologist told me he could find nothing wrong with my heart and that he was releasing me from his care with his blessing to get back on the trail, I nearly had a heart attack. I wasted no time getting back out there. The next morning I climbed Piestewa Peak, a 2600 foot mountain (we call them mountains in Arizona), which is located in the City’s center and provides views of the entire Valley of the Sun.

My neighbor Mick, who just started walking with us in the mornings, and I got on the road at about 0530 hours. George, my other walking buddy, cancelled for this hike. He had to make concrete potato chips (I'm not kidding). Nevertheless it was a perfect morning. It looked like we had been blessed with a bit of rain overnight because the windshield on the Kia was wet, either a light rain or one of the ferrel cats sprayed my windshield again. I went inside and grabbed a rain coat (the least needed necessary item for hiking in AZ). When I came back out I noticed there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Better to be prepared I guess. I swung by and picked up Mick and we were off.

The City of Phoenix, in all their wisdom, decided the parking lot needed work so what better time to do it than when it is actually cool enough for folks to be on the mountain. We parked down the road, which added a few more step to our morning walkabout. We made our way along the make shift trail towards the trailhead. It was light enough that the headlamps were more of an annoyance so we relied on our stellar night vision skills. We casually made our way to the trailhead. The first couple to pass us must have left their manners in the car.  I saw them gaining on us quickly so we stopped, stepped off the trail, said "good morning" and let them pass. They looked at us as if we had just told them we had imagined them naked. They did not say thanks or return the good morning. They just waddled arrogantly on up the trail. Admittedly this put me in rather sour mood but it was quickly remedied by the warm good morning from nearly every person on the trail. Even on their way down, the curmudgeon twins mumbled some sort of salutation.

We leap frogged several folks up the trail. Only one of them sumitted, she was the only one in the crew that wasn’t complaining about the climb. Once on top, the sun was just breaking the horizon. If I ever get tired of climbing mountains, then my days on earth are done. The view was phenomenal and slightly more appreciated these days.  With all good things having to come to an end, we took some summit photos and headed back down the hill. This is the one time that uphill is more fun than downhill. We made our way back down the road to where the car was parked. We finished the morning with some coffee from Luci’s at the Orchard. If in the area, I highly recommend it. I hope to have more trails soon. Just sayin’...