I stopped in the Apache National Forest in eastern Arizona for a few days to do some training. I was due for a longer training session and there a a trail here that caught my eye when I was looking for a cool place to camp and train – Mount Baldy. It turned out to be “Time in Feet, Feet on Trail, Feet on Snow, Butt on Snow kind of day.

Below are the stats

Miles: 17.32 Loop

East Baldy Trail > Crossover > West Baldy Trail > East baldy Trail

Elevation Gain: 2913ft

Max Elevation: 11,198ft 

Duration: 8:21

It was clear that early on that this was going to be mostly a hike because of the starting elevation and  elevation gain. It was a It was a beautiful trail. Miles 3-5 followed along stream. I was run/hiking along at a slow 17min mile pace through mile 6 and then the more and more snow started covering the trail. The further I ascended the more snow there was and the harder the trail was to follow. At about mile 9 the ground was completely covered in snow and the trail was impossible to follow. Because of all the snow storms from last winter the trail was completely blocked in many places by fallen and pushed over trees and impossible to follow with out looking at the phone app every few minutes and bushwhacking through.

This was the first time that I had encountered a situation like this and had to figure out how to navigate through an un marked trail covered in feet of snow. It was quite slippery on the snow in many places and none of it was flat, it was ascending, depending or traversing across the snow and crampon’s would have been useful to get a better grip on the snow.

It turned out to be quite an adventure, what I had hoped to complete in 4-5 hours turned into almost 8.5 hours. But in the end it turned out to be one days that I will remember because of the difficulty and new challenges I was able to experience and overcome.

#speedgoat50k #g2g2024 #arizona #mountbaldy #tryhardthings #challengeyourself #getoutside #putasmileonsomeonesface #wakeupwiththebirds #trailrunning #cautionslowrunner #speakupformentalhealth #thankful #luckyman #blessed