The Neurotic Wanderer

Was a huge success!     This was hike #25 of my 52 Hike Challenge  and I'm so glad that it was. I first attempted Mt. Humphrey's about two months ago and it was a bit of a disaster (more on that experience later). I hadn't done a hike that week and I could feel my moodiness returning to me, so I decided last minute to try this hike again. I did some research to better understand the hike and how best to prepare (last time I relied on the information of the other people in my group, which was a big mistake). My first attempt of the hike gave me some insight as to how the first, and easiest, leg of the hike was going to be, so I knew I just needed a bigger picture. View from "the saddle"     In my research I found that there were several "false peaks", meaning that you would look at a peak and think it was THE peak, only to get there and see more peaks beyond that. I would say that there were 4 to 5 of them in the last mile of the hike. That for...

    So, after the fiasco of my last hike, I knew that I had to get right back out there and work it out. Mend the relationship after an argument, so to speak. I've still been in a pretty bad head space and I can honestly say that I cried for like a solid mile out there, but the hike itself did what it needed to do. I felt better afterward and felt like I had created a plan to get me through my problems. It felt good to find a trail that was fairly challenging and required me to just focus the task at hand. Before I knew, my shoulders were no longer up near my ears, my face became less of a scowl and more at rest and my mind felt less restless. It felt good to be doing something where I had to push my body.     This was a hike that was 75% unfamiliar to me. I had hiked part of this trail before with my dog, so I knew the basics of the terrain. However, I went on a day where the day prior we had had some monumental monsoon storms, so I wasn't exactly sure what I ...