I received my second COVID-19 shot at work on Friday, February 26th, and intended to leave work at 3:30 PM to meet Dominica Christian at her house as we were driving to Lost Dutchman State Campground to camp overnight with Teri Thompson, her husband Kevin Bratten, Dana Maria Montry and her friend Julie – Unfortunately an emergency cropped up at work and my boss asked me to stay late to work on it – I resolved the emergency, though it took considerably longer than anticipated – Dominica Christian and I finally made to the campground late in the evening – Lucky for us, Teri and Kevin had set up an extra tent

Teri and I left the campsite just before 8:00 AM on Saturday and headed for the Siphon Draw Trailhead – At 0.3 miles in we met Nae Spears, Gil Salazar and Celeste Mazzuca-Angelini – This was the first time everyone in our group had done this hike – Nae Spears mentioned that this was the last hike of a challenge she was doing – This is how I learned about the Six Pack of Peaks challenge –  While we were still in the flat section, Gil told us, “There's a guy that's 90 years old who does this hike every other day” – I thought WOW!  Now that's incredible! I hope I'm still mobile enough to hike when I'm 90 years old

There is a lot of hand and foot scrambling to be done in this hike – Next time I'll bring some gloves – You can take your trekking poles, but they will spend most of the time in your pack as you'll need both hands free for scrambling – There isn't a lot of shade on this trail so it's advisable to wear a hat and sunscreen – Personally I always seem to get sunscreen in my eyes so I typically wear a UPF 50+ protective cap with neck flaps – Unfortunately, I forgot to bring it on this trip and had to borrow a hat – Without a doubt this hike is a total body workout and I would say this is the toughest hike in the Arizona Six Pack of Peaks winter challenge

When we were about 2/3 of the way up when we came upon an area where several people with different groups were resting – Gil noticed a man sitting on a rock and asked, “Are you Jim?”  It was him!  Jim Greentree, the 90 year old hiker Gil had told us about earlier – No, I didn't know his full name during our hike and it would be many days after our hike that I would come to know Jim was better known as Flatiron Jim – If you go to YouTube and search for “Flatiron Jim” you'll find a video posted by ARIZONA FIT-VENTURES featuring Jim Greentree – I asked Jim if he would take a selfie with me and he obliged – Jim is actually 89 years old and he told me he started hiking 8 years ago after his wife passed away – I'll be 67 years old in August and this was definitely a highlight of this hike for me – What an inspiration he is and how fortunate for us that Jim had chosen this day to do Flatiron