Flagstaff / Mt. Javelina adventure

View out onto our balcony and into the street

Our front door

Subaru in its home garage!

View of mountains from our balcony

Missy's first bike ride in Flagstaff

Hiking area

Beginning of our hike--Mt. Javelina is on the righthand side, with its left side bare to the sun and the right side snow-covered

Missy sunk into the snow

Our reflection!

We hiked part of the Arizona Trail

new trees, trying to avoid sinking in the questionable snow

Tree hugger

Juggling pine cones

Pine cones with intense sap buildup

Our lunches, in an area protected from high wind

Rock protection from wind

Bradleybananadirectioncompass--THAT WAY!

On top of Mt. Javelina!

Windy atop Mt. Javelina

Missy looks out atop Mt. Javelina

Peace!

     Missy and I have now been in Flagstaff over a week. It has been a week of adventure! The town is awesome, people are friendly, and there are trails all over the place that make travel on foot/bike quite easy.
    I started my job with CREC, all of last week was orientation. Tomorrow I head out to Sedona with my crew and I will be camping there until Friday. The projected weather is awesome--sunny with highs around 60 and lows around 40. Perfect.
   Today Missy and I attempted to hike Mt. Humphreys, which hits over 12,000 feet. Flagstaff is around 7,000 feet. Unfortunately, a combination of intense wind (which shut down the ski resort) and deep snow made that ascent impossible. However! Missy and I are super resourceful and we created our own path. We started at the base of Mt. Humphreys, and saw a mountain in the distance we decided to climb. Luckily, we stumbled upon the Arizona Trail, and that took us part of the way. From there, we followed some other tracks in the snow to make it to Mt. Javelina. Truthfully, Mt. Javelina is probably called by another name, but Missy and I decided after much discussion that "Mt. Javelina" is the most appropriate name for this mountain, so henceforth that shall be its name! We were introduced to javelina in Tahoe, because Lodie has a stuffed javelina that she likes to chase and chew. Our first day in Flagstaff, Missy and I went to the Visitor's Center, and there was a brochure all about javelina and the ways to discourage them from eating your trash. Anyway, the hike was beautiful. We struggled a fair bit--altitude impacts the cardiovascular system a whole lot. Most of the way to Mt. Javelina was downhill, and we were protected from wind by the trees. However, when we arrived at our destination, the ascent was out in the open and the higher we hiked, the more the wind tried to push us over. We stopped part way up to eat, and then made our way to the summit. Hiking down the mountain was difficult because it is covered in patchy snow and loose rocks. Luckily, walking in a zig-zag and occasionally sliding down in a crouched position worked decently. We then proceeded to hike back to our car, which was almost entirely uphill, and required many moments of rest and the shedding of many, many layers.
    Overall, it was wonderful day!
    Tomorrow, off to Sedona...