I love to hike!

This morning I went on a lone, early, glorious hike on South Mountain. The nice thing about waking up before 5 is that there is (hopefully) still a good chunk of alone time before three small people and one large person begin demanding things of me. Where's my shirt? She's stinky! I want milk! She said booger!

I was on the trail by 5:30, and was nearly giddy with happiness to be alone and in nature. Sort of. Surrounded by city nature and deserty nature (when I so prefer nature in all of it's green glory), but it was created by God and I was in it = happy. It used to be a regular thing, me and my love affair with hiking, but then mommyhood, work, laundry and all-encompassing laziness got squarely in the way of that. When I get off of my duff and hike, I am so so so happy about it and even though as of late it's been more of the step step step step BREEEAAATHEEE step step step step BREAAATHHEEEE step step step step step step step BREAATHHEEEEE variety, it's incredibly good therapy for me.

And seeing as how the day is supposed to hit 106 or so, the only time sane people go hiking is in the wee early morning before you want to huddle in the fetal position in the shade and call for an air evacuation. In my two hour hike, between all of the nature happy, I was tortured by a bee the size of a flying golf ball. Repeatedly. I inquired of God why this and a number of other creatures even EXIST. Seriously, like scorpions. Cockroaches. Those weird fish. Food chain schmood chain. He didn't give me a solid answer, danngit. Another thing I'll have to ask Him in person. Once my cell phone vibrated and I immediately thought RATTLER! You know how those rattlesnakes love the sun and the exposed calf. And there I was, exposed calf and all and no shovel to defend myself (I once killed a rattler with a shovel, out of fear, pure adrenaline and the fact I happened to be holding a shovel). Thankfully the snakes were still sleeping and because I hadn't had any coffee, the thought of them had the same effect to keep me alert.

I always feel a great sense of accomplishment when I get to the top. And I always feel closer to God on the top of a mountain. I know God is the same at sea level, but it's just feels better up there... my prayers freer. That's one of the reasons I love it. I finally caught my breath and was just settling in on a rock to enjoy the view when a couple of men, Ebony and Ivory, raced by. Literally running. And they must have come from the really far side of the mountain, so they'd already been quite a few miles. Did I mention they were at a dead run? On a mountain? Rocks and cacti everywhere? Ebony was in the lead by far and once again, it was again proven that white man can't sprint (couldn't resist).

The only injury I received was a bit of a knee twist when my footing slipped and I opted to self-inflict a fall to prevent me from landing on a huge cholla cactus in a heap. A good trade-off, if you ask me. All in all, a great way to spend an early morning! If any of you locals want to give it a try, call me! I may even pack a port-a-shovel next time.