Desert Hiking and Room Service

By the time this posts, I will be on a plane back to Boston, yet another national sales and marketing meeting over and preparing for a manic 2.5 work days before I leave for IRELAND on Friday. Woohoo!

The highlight of my lovely and busy trip to Scottsdale was most definitely the 6.5 mile guided hike that we took on Sunday afternoon. After a long morning that started with meeting room setup at 6:40, I was ready to be outside and away from laptops and presentations for the day!

Blurry photo of the beautiful sunrise

Our guides picked us up at the hotel and drove us to the base of South Mountain in Phoenix where we split into a couple of groups based on how far we wanted to hike. Because I wanted to get a good workout in and because I am hardcore 🙂 I chose the fastest, longest hike. The guide setting the pace was not messing around. . . she took off, and we scurried along behind her.

In the first 20 minutes or so, I honestly started to get a little worried. The very dry air, combined with our quick pace and the hilly terrain had me huffing and puffing. I started to wonder if my legs were still fatigued from my long run earlier in the week. Sometimes I think I am out of shape when I am just overly tired. Do you ever get like that?

After some time, I got into the swing of things and started really enjoying powering up and down each of the hills. The scenery was so amazing.

Petro glyphs

Along our way, we climbed many hills, scaled our way down some very slippery rocks, squeezed between giant rocks in a space so narrow I thought I was going to get stuck, and saw three coyotes! I was most excited about the coyotes because I was really hoping to see some wild animals! Luckily they were about 25 feet away and ran into and across a ravine when they saw us. Also lucky, it was not rattlesnake season so we did not have to worry about seeing any of those!

Our guides were very helpful, knowledgeable and interesting, and they had plenty of water and snacks for us.

After the hike, feeling exhilarated and exhausted, we all headed back to the hotel for drinks by the fire pit. I had one Italian mojito made with basil, then called it a night to take a hot shower and order room service.

Sicilian tuna sandwich with green olive tapenade

The protein in the tuna hit the spot. I have been eating piles of veggies and staying pretty healthy but definitely lacking in the protein department. I need it with all of the activity going on!

So, I am looking forward to sleeping in my bed for a couple of nights, seeing my hubby and my cats, and getting a couple of workouts in. I won’t lie, I really wish I lived in a warmer climate like Arizona so that I could exercise outside year round. I think it would be amazing to be able to mountain bike, hike, run, kayak, and walk in the mountains in the winter. I am thinking I just need to do more fun winter sports. LOVE being active and outside!

I hope you are all doing well! I am way behind in blog commenting, but I will be back someday soon. Thanks for reading!! 🙂