Family Letter 02-28 Going South to Sabino Canyon

Our latest adventure as recounted by a client journalist:

Hello B2B friends and family!

This is client T, wishing you a happy and healthy March from a cold and snowy Flagstaff, AZ! Before I get to the trip, just wanted to say a quick few things. Firstly, I’d like to welcome and (sort of) introduce you all to client R, who arrived early last week, and who is another Texas client like myself (cue Deep in the Heart of Texas). Also, I’d like to say thank you to the families of clients A1 and A2, who both had family weekends this last week. It was nice meeting all of y’all, and getting to spend some time with some of you all. Your sons are both great young men, and we here are all very happy that ya’ll got to see all the incredible progress that these guys have been making over the last few months. Alright, so now that that is all out of the way, on to the juicy details of our 4 day trip…

Everyone was up quite early Sunday morning, as we were all very eager to get away from Flagstaff, as a mini blizzard had come through Thursday night through Saturday morning, turning our mild winter into what appeared to be a frostbitten wasteland (or maybe that’s just my Southern opinion). Excited to get a few hours away to a land where the temperatures were in the 70s, we hustled into the vans with our usual burritos and coffee and set out for Tucson. Unfortunately, since this was a backpack and Tucson is a solid 4 hours away, we didn’t get to hit up the early morning Men’s Stag meeting, nor my favorite place to be, the gym. However, I’m sure most of us thoroughly enjoyed the naps we got in on the drive. There are worse things in the world than being crooned to sleep by Toby Keith. We got to Tucson, and started our hike that was eerily reminiscent to one a few weeks earlier, the last time we were in Tucson. It should have been though, because we did the exact same hike, but instead of it being a day hike, we just had more weight and went further. The first day was a bit rough on everyone, as the mileage and elevation was more than expected, and more than one of the guys were battling some various form of illness. The last 1-1.5 mile push was especially rough, as it climbed roughly 1000 feet according to one of our guides. Nevertheless, we eventually made it to our campsite, a nice flat area on what seemed to be a saddle between two peaks, called Thimble Flats. We held our AA meeting soon after getting there, quickly ate some dinner, and went to bed as soon as we could.

Monday was a fairly slow moving day for us, as we were only traveling 5ish miles on easier terrain as opposed to our rougher hike the day prior. We slept in until around 8, made our usual mandatory oats, and held an AA meeting. We left the campsite around noon, and reached our next campsite by about 2. It was a fairly uneventful hike, but our day was not yet over. After dropping off our backpacks, we did a short 20 minute jaunt over to Hutch’s Pools (I have no idea who Hutch is, why those pools are important, or why he claimed them, for the record), where several clients and the guides decided to do a nice little polar dip. The water was definitely chilly, but they’ve been in colder, so after some quick pushups and re layering, they were once again nice and toasty. We returned from Hutch’s Pools to the campground around 5 and ate some dinner before retiring early. Our plans had changed due to weather, so we were pushing down and out of Sabino Canyon the next day, and trying to summit Picacho Peak, which some of you may remember we climbed over Christmas.

We woke up at 7 on Tuesday, packed all of our stuff, and preceded to hike down and out of Sabino Canyon. We were all expecting it to be mostly downhill, but attitudes soured and grumpiness set in as some going down a canyon meant hiking higher in elevation (physics is weird). But oh well. Despite being told we had 1-1.5 miles for like the last 4 miles of the trip (I promise it was funny to start with), we eventually made it down the canyon and back to the van. We then caught a meeting in Tucson, where Intern Guide Mike picked up his 8 month chip (congrats brother). Guide Nick had stocked up on some provisions during the meeting, so we were all eager to make it to Picacho to chow down on some pitas, despite the soul crushing hike the next day. Hilarity then ensued, as the wind seemed intent on defeating every attempt at setting up shelters, resulting in ripped ponchos, much yelling, and lots of frustrations. We all finally got everything set up and finally went to sleep as the rain settled in, and slept peacefully to the pitter patter of rain on tents.

Thrilling news started our Wednesday, as simple mathematics proved we could not climb Picacho and make it back to Hunter House on time. So after a delicious breakfast and a community meeting, we hopped back in the vans and headed home. By the time we got back to Flagstaff it was once again snowing, but moods drastically improved once we stopped to get some Chipotle for lunch. After a quick derig the trip was over and done with, and we were happy, and sore, but a good sore.

So until next time friends and family, as always

This is Client T, over and out