Last week was brutal in Phoenix: 117° relentless heat, which is somewhat unusual for June, so Flagstaff was a welcome escape! My sister and I departed Phoenix at 5 a.m. to reach the trailhead at 7:30 a.m. – just in time because the parking lot started to fill up quickly. Temps were around 70° and reached around 90° with a refreshing rain during our post-hike outdoor lunch in downtown Flag.

This was our first hike of the Arizona Summer Six-Pack of Peaks Challenge 2021 and it was a good break-in, as the trail was steep at times, but there were enough short “breathing breaks” on less precipitous stretches. I used hiking poles for the first time (thank you, sis!) and found them helpful, distributing my weight more evenly and working my arms as well as my legs. You could hear the aspens' leaves shaking in the slight breeze and smell the fresh pine. There was a nice balance of heat and shade throughout, so I didn't ever feel overly hot, although the sun was pretty intense the last 30 minutes of the hike down. The views at the top were a bit hazy due to the distant fires, but it was still beautiful. Devastating to see what the 1977 Radio Fire left of the mountain, though. Very sparse amounts of aspens are peaking through there now, but after all of these years, I was surprised that it hadn't been reforested.

We took a nice snack break at the top, took in the scenery, chatted with a couple of nice locals, then headed back down. By the time I got to the end, I'd depleted just over two liters of water, so I'll be packing a bit more on future hikes. I believe we finished around 11:30, so including our summit break, we completed the loop in about four hours. All-in-all, this was a great first start to my first Six-Peaks Challenge!