Yesterday, on my second "official" day of Spring Break, Eric and I decided to go hiking in Sedona. We spent the previous evening looking through my books to find the perfect trail. It's frustrating because I'm not to the point yet where I can hike for 9 or 10 miles . . . couple more months, but right now I'm at about 6 miles as my max. This limited some of the hikes, they seemed to be either too easy or too hard. We found, however, what seemed to be the perfect one: Secret Canyon Trail just outside of sedona. 7.6 miles, moderate level difficulty and about 700 feet of elevation gain. . . perfect.
The next morning we headed out at about 8:30 and hit the Corner Bakery on the way (oh so delicious) where I had my first Blueberry Muffin in 3 months!! :-) We finally got on the road about 9:30, and reached Sedona at about 11:30. I forgot how far it is, I was thinking about an 1 1/2 hours, but it took a bit longer. Once we finally reached Red Rocks Territory, Eric's reaction was much the same as mine last year when dad and I went. Simple wonder. There's not much else you can say when you finally reach there. It is absolutely unbelievable. We finally got into town, which took quite a while due to construction, and stopped to figure out exactly where we were going. The trail was West of town on 89A, then right on Dry Creek Road. As we were driving, it seemed very familiar, then we finally reached Dry Creek Road and I realized this was the route dad and I went on last year during our "jeep tour." After driving on Dry Creek Road for a bit, you turn right onto a "maintained road" and must follow that for 3.2 miles. DO NOT DRIVE THIS ROAD IF YOU HAVE A SEDAN! This "maintained road" almost destroyed my little Saturn, a fact of which I was not very happy. We got about 2.5 miles, then decided to walk the rest of the way.
It's odd, whenever I start these trails, I'm so worried that I can't do it that I almost talk myself out of it. I get panicked that I'm not in good enough shape, etc, then eventually I end up completing the trail pretty successfully! I guess this comes from 10 years of being out of shape. I have also found that I do much better if I have an end point in mind. It never fails that the trip back to the car is always easier than the trip out, and I think it's purely physchological. I think for a while, I just have to make sure that I'm giving myself attainable goals, or else I will become completely overwhelmed.
ANYWAY, once we started on the trail, it reminded me so much of home. The smell of the trees, walking in the sandy trail, the scent and sound of running water, I wanted desparately to be up north. The trail was clearly marked with quite a few great little campsites along the way. The beginning follows the path of a river, which you cross twice (if it's flooding, it could be a problem!). Then, slowly we made our descent up for about 2 - 2.5 miles where we reached a plateau with the most beautiful views I think I've ever seen. We stopped here and had PBJ's for lunch (yuck. I need to find a different lunch, I really don't like PBJ), with a bit of trail mix and popcorn. While we sat, I had a great idea to take my bandana off to dry out and lay it over the top of prickly pear. I will NEVER do that again. When I went to put it back on, it had prickles all over it. Shoot. Now I had to walk back with nothing to keep the sweat out of my eyes, at least it was a quick trip back. We probably stayed for 15 - 20 minutes, then headed back. We were going to complete the trail, as it was only another mile, but both of us thought it would be a bit anti-climactic in comparison to where we were.
On the way back, we realized how much we had actually been climbing! The trip back was quick and easy, and only took us about 45 minutes to get back to the trailhead. All in all, it was around a 3 hour hike (including the time to the trailhead from the car, and back). It was incredibly gorgeous and I cannot wait to go back! Perhaps next weekend we'll go up to Prescott which is thankfully, quite a bit closer!
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