I prayed for rain.....

......But God wanted me to climb a mountain,

not build an arc!

Yesterday was the 15.5 mile National Trail Trek

held at South Mountain Park and my dear husband

signed me up for it!

It rained buckets and buckets during the week and even tho

really enjoy hiking I was really hoping that this event would be

rained out. I can remember hearing the "old folks" talk about a storm coming in...."I can feel it in my bones". Well now I seem to have become the "old folk" since every joint in my body aches when a storm comes in. Friday my body was one big ache and I just didn't want to do this hike

Besides my aches and pains I figured that with all of rain we had had that the trails would be muddy and slippery.

Well, I went.
The above picture is the group of friends that we

met at the hike. This picture was taken just before we hit the trail head.

So here I am hiking the mountain trail.

As you can see the trails were not muddy or slippery!

I was very thankful for that.

And as my friend Deb pointed out earlier this week (when I was whining)

the rain had made the air smell so fresh and clean.

There were a few puddles here and there....

And some rocky climbing....

But the panoramic views of the city down below

and the rocks and the cactus were breathtaking.

I've come to really love our desert scenery.

I'm looking pretty happy in this photo since

I've just made it to the top of a pretty steep climb!

Those tents down there at the bottom represent

LUNCH and the end of the trail for me.

I ended up only doing 7.8 miles of the 15.5 mile trail.

I probably could have gone a couple of miles further, but past this

point I would have had to continue on the full 15.5 miles,

and I just didn't think that my back could take it.

I really had nothing to gain, except possible injury, by pushing

myself to go to the end. I wanted to end on a high note, not

a broken one!

I truly enjoyed this hike. It was so nice spending the time

with my husband, seeing other friends and drinking in the

beauty of our mountains and city below.