Arizona-Utah Report, Part 2

As I reflect on my hiking adventures out west last month, I'm borrowing – okay, stealing – an idea from one of my favorite bloggers and podcasters, Nicole Antoinette, on her Rose Thorn Bud podcast.

The Rose Thorn Bud approach to thinking through your day or week or month has been around for a long time. I remember when my now 29-year-old kid, Michael, was about 12 and camping with his Boy Scout troop. At night around the campfire, each boy would share his Rose and Thorn of the day. I don't remember Buds from those days, but maybe they were in there, too.

So, from my Arizona-Utah trip I'm sharing my Rose, Thorn, and Bud for each of the three topics I write about. Today's topic is Play.

My Rose for Play came on the final day of my trip, August 1. I had been in Flagstaff for nearly a week, after meeting up with Michael and Rachel in northern New Mexico. We hung out together and with our friends Melody and Tim, who hosted Rachel and me in their beautiful, southwestern-style house, the upper floor of which they've made into a hostel for thru-hikers on the 800-mile Arizona Trail.

They also have a tiny house, which Tim designed and built in their backyard about two years ago. A couple in their 70s, with many adventures in their past and present lives, Melody and Tim told their latest stories as they fed us scrumptious dinners featuring the day's harvest from their gardens: sweet cucumber salad with fresh dill, spicy sautéed eggplant and summer squash, grilled salmon topped with sprigs of rosemary, and much more.

I felt playful watching Rachel and Michael playing disc golf and the card game Magic: The Gathering. It was also playful for me to have free time in one place, hours alone to decompress from all the traveling, to write, and spend an afternoon dicing, mincing, and chopping loads of veggies for dinner.

Then, on that final day, early in the morning Rachel, Michael, and I drove about 30 minutes to the trailhead at Humphreys Peak, the highest natural point in Arizona, with an elevation of 12,637 feet. When I say that hike was playful, what I mean is that for most of the time on trail I was drawn out of my own head and into the beauty of the forest, the cool morning air, the energy of strenuous climbing, the pleasure of talking with and listening to my kids.

We didn't hike all the way to the summit. I wanted to make sure we had time for a nice lunch together, and I didn't need to summit Humphreys Peak that day. I was out to have a good time, so we turned around when I was ready. Hiking for three hours at my pace (38 minutes per mile), we covered 4.66 miles with an elevation gain of 1,512 feet.

Photos: the tiny house; dinner with Melody and Tim