5/8/2010 - Picacho Peak

Awesome and painful are probably the best descriptive phrases for this hike. If you're looking to push your physical and mental limits this hike is for you! Picacho Peak is about 40 miles north of Tucson, Arizona. We live in East Mesa and left at 5:00 am for our adventure (it was suppose to get to 97 degrees that day). Once we arrived we had a quick breakfast of cereal bars and yogurt and made sure our bladders were completely drained. You start out by going roughly 1,000 ft. straight up. I had extensively researched this hike before going and heard the first part would be physically demanding, but didn't gain a full appreciation for that until my legs were screaming!

We took a nice break at the saddle and then began a CRAZY descent down the backside. I remember thinking to myself, "if it gets much more intense than this we may just have to call it a day." We dropped something like 450 ft. very quickly with the use of steel cables mounted into the rock (so much for all that work going UP!!!). The trail then heads south for a very short distance and then begins an incredible ascent to the top. At several places you're looking almost straight up and asking your self, "seriously, we're suppose to go up that and not break our necks???" Yes, seriously. Several places along the way have cables mounted into the side of the rock. The kids went right up without any complaints or reservations. I constantly reminded them to go SLOW, TAKE THEIR TIME, and AT ANYTIME, IF THEY FELT UNCOMFORTABLE TO ASK FOR HELP. Only one time did Tanner ask for help, and that was to lift him up because he couldn't reach his leg high enough to get started.

It took us around 4 hours to get back to the car. The kids did great, me not so much. Probably one of the most physically demanding things I've ever done! I've lost some weight and have been doing the Nordic Track an hour a night at least four days a week and thought that would help prepare me. WRONG!!! If I hadn't been doing these things I seriously doubt I would have made it. It's two days later and I can't remember being this sore. It is as though I spent several hours in the gym doing nothing by squats! Of course, as soon as we got back in the car the kids were asking if they could go ride their bikes when we got home. The joys of youth!!!

Great hike, highly recommended. There is a sign that mentions it's not recommended for kids under 10. Weston was 9 and Tanner was 6. They handled it without a problem. Much appreciation to Wayne Cottam for pointing us towards Picacho Peak! Net elevation gain ~ 1,820 ft. in two miles.

The "Real" Nightmare Before Christmas.....Pictures

Good Times

Recent Fun

Shooting in the Desert with Silly Grandpa


The Glock 20 (10mm) - The 10mm auto is one of the most powerful semi-automatic handguns available. In fact, the 10mm retains more kinetic energy at 100 yards than the .45 ACP has at the muzzle. Weston fired it a few days before and was done after one shot because it hurt his hand. Jordan couldn't get enough of it. The first picture below shows the fire coming out of the muzzle and the bullet can be seen, but is a blur. There are also a few cool shots in which the empty case can be seen in the air.







BBs and .22s

Silly Grandpa helping Tanner with the BB gun

The Firing Line

Weston used his own money to purchase his first .22. It's a Ruger 10/22 and it wouldn't be complete without the 25 round banna clip.

The .410 Shotgun

The .357 Magnum - Jordan and Weston put .38 Special and .357 Magnum through this gun. Needless to say, they had a "blast"

Jordan was proud that she was able to hit the metal on the target holder (by accident, of course). You can see the bullet pushed the metal back quite a bit.

This gun that Jordan is firing is a 7mm that my Dad's Dad picked up off of a dead German officer in the great WW.

After firing all the big guns Weston decided to take it easy for a while with the bb gun.

Stake Family Activity Day - So our Stake had a "Family Activity Day" at the local Jr. High. They had a huge inflatable slide, two bounce houses, a rock climbing wall, a dunk tank, kareoke and lots of food. When we pulled up Morgan was sooo excited. She was so excited that she tried to get out of the van a little too fast and took a pretty good fall. She scraped up her knee and was done before the fun even started. Poor little girl. However, she did enjoy the fries that were made in Dutch Ovens.

Two wiped out grandpas. Tom (Rhonda's father on the left) had foot surgery a few weeks back and then two weeks later had shoulder surgery.

Rocket Fun - The kids (Jordan, Weston and Tanner) got model rockets for Christmas. We finally got around to the maiden launches. The rocket below is Weston's. Tanner needed help with the launch so no pictures of his. The wind was blowing gently. Tanner's rocket went about 1,200 feet in the air and the wind took the parachute FAR out into the desert. We eventually found it. Jordan's rocket did some sick contortion about 50 feet into the air and then did a nose dive (rocket still burning) into the ground. The nose cone was buried into the ground so when the reverse thrust went off (designed to blow the nose cone off so the parachute/streamer deploys) the rocket basically burst. No more rocket for poor Jordan.

Beautiful Arizona Sky