I was at the trailhead at 5:45 am. Got parking. The group arrived after 6 and the lot was already full. They parked on the road.
That sunrise from the parking lot. Worth the early alarm by itself.
We started at 6:15. Ten of us. Strangers, mostly. The kind of group where you don’t know anyone’s last name but you’re about to spend two hours sweating together on a mountain. That counts for something.
Except we didn’t quite sweat together.
The initial climb is steep. No easing into it. The trail just goes up and keeps going up. And that’s where the group of ten quietly fell apart. Different paces, different lungs. By the time the climb leveled off, we were already in small clusters scattered across the trail. So much for the group hike.
Somewhere around the middle, a few of us broke away and scrambled up a small hill. That’s where Phoenix opened up below us. The whole city just sitting there, quiet and spread out. Worth every extra step.
Then the rocks. There’s a narrow passage where you have to turn sideways and squeeze through. My fellow hikers found that very entertaining. They made sure to get it on video. There were other spots where you had to actually get down and crawl. Full commitment.
Two hours not counting breaks and photo ops. Good two hours.
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