Thanksgiving, Waterfalls, Tabasco and Hiking

Scott and Nicole on top of Camelback Mountain

Thanksgiving was a very new experience for me this year. I got to experience some incredible adventures with my family in new places.

I was blessed with an early departure from work at G5 on Wednesday, which created a time slot to run at Smith Rock en route to my parents new home in Hood River.

Thursday, I awoke early to enjoy several hours of reading and website building. Happily I was able to complete my friend Kyle’s website for High Desert Home Theater. Well…. I finished the 98% that really matters.

Thursday afternoon we drove to the Sherwood Forest trailhead for a hike up to Tamanawas Falls near Hood River. This is a short 4 mile out and back that should be hiked by everyone in Oregon. It is beautiful.

Friday, I flew to Scottsdale, AZ to meet my girlfriend, her sister, mom and step dad. Great adventures lie ahead.

Saturday Nicole work me up for a 4.5 mile run first thing. I hated getting up early that day, but it was well worth it. When we got back I cooked a five star breakfast of eggs, pancakes and fresh fruit. The pinnacle of breakfast? Me splashing Tabasco off my eggs in into my eyeball. This created a solid five minutes of excitement and pain i’d wish upon no one. There is a simple remedy for this mishap: flushing your eye under the sink and a dropping a few eye drops.

Saturday afternoon would be even more exciting. We drove to Camelback Mountain on the outskirts of Phoenix where we would hike to nearly 3000 feet. I was appalled by not only the view, but the sheer number of people hiking up this mountain. There must have been a thousand or more.

After hiking Camelback we headed to Tom’s Thumb, another uphill journey through a land filled with cactus, spiders and beautiful rocks. This adventure shed light to how small we really are and how powerful mother nature is. While the assent was not hard I believe that dehydration shed light on all of us and exhaustion was the result.

During the descent of Tom’s Thumb Nicole and I spotted a Tarantula on the trail. I wanted to flick it off the trail to maybe save it’s life rather than just letting it be. I reached under a Cholla Cactus to grab stick and paid the ultimate price. A cholla jumped off the cactus and landed on my thumb. This is a horrible experience. The Cholla has barb like cactus spines that are not easily removed. I tried to flick the darn thing off and that only resulted in the cactus burying itself deeper into my thumb. A kind man walking down the trail stopped to say I have just the thing to help you. A comb. I had to brace my thumb on a large rock, slide the comb between my thumb and the cholla and rip my thumb off the cholla. Ouch! Not a fun experience to say the least. I managed to remove all but two of the thorns from my thumb.

Nicole and I finished the hike down Tom’s Thumb into the AZ sunset. A beautiful way to finish an adventurous day.

Summit as friends!
Scott

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