Ok 07/06/07-friday-Well I wanted to head up to Flagstaff because I still havent been. I changed my plans after checking the weather and figured the San Francisco Peaks were probably getting hammered by lightning.

So I've been looking at Agua Caliente hill for a while. I found it listed as mountain bike ride and thought "well if it's a ride it will make a great run!

I chose to ignore the various warnings I pulled up about not going up there in summer or that the elevation profile spikes from 2500 to 5500 feet in 4.5miles or that the last 1.5 miles is listed as rough.
Hey there is even a register to sign up there, cool.

No problem, "I should probably do this mid day to keep up the heat training, I mean come on 9 miles is nothing right".
So I armed myself with 68oz of water, sunscreen and fruit snacks- CHARGE!!!
So I headed out and as an after thought I wet my bandanna in the sink and shoved it in my pocket.

Good thing because this came in to play later and had a huge role in me being able to finish and summit.

So the directions were great I got there fast hopped out and stretched and started running @ 1:20pm. Awesome trail I soon took off the sun glasses because of all the clouds. Up up up I went.

After roughly 1 mile of up I started to overheat and had to wet my self down using my drinking water. Bear in mind I'm still climbing. After another mile of this the reflective heat from the clouds was really getting to me and I had to ditch my hat. The back of my head and neck was really hot.. I kept dabbing my head with my bandana( it was still wet!) Well this stopped working so I decided to do something Ive seen endurance athletes do... I just layed my bandana flat over my head open and over my neck and a little bit over my forehead.
Well this didnt work great because I have to be able to see what im doing, my feet especially.

Ok so idea #2-@ this point I was seriously thinking about turning around if I couldnt cool down.

So I tried to drape my rag across my neck and tie it in front of my forehead kind of like a shieks head dress. It worked and even covered the sides of my face and neck but was loose enough and open on the top of my head to allow the heat to escape.

So after this little drama passed ( still climbing) I reached a sign and the 3 mile point. The trail did'nt really let up at all up to this point and climbed steadily. I had walked one short section of maybe 75 feet thus far and felt good.

So I charged on thinking 1.5,only 1.5 to go.- If I had paid attention to the route warnings I would have known I was headed for some walking . So no problem, after a bit of running I came to a hill and a rough stretch so I walked. (still climbing) The trail got rougher still and I didnt see any other summits so Im thinking this is it Im done. Well after slogging to the top I could see the trail unwind and head up a long ridge to the obvious peak to the east. False summit Damn it damn it.
So I ran a bit knowing that the real tough stuff still lay ahead. Well I reached the ridge and kept picking my way up up up. The running stopped again after I reached the ridge proper. Well after I slowly cleared the top I knew I had found the real summit.

I had to walk probably 65 or 75% of that last 1.5 miles and am pretty sure I wouldnt be able to run the last section to the ridge proper to the top... its just rough and loose and steep.
So I hung out on top for a bit, signed the log which is next to the fire circle under a pile of rocks in a jar. No one had been up there in 2 or 3 months. The storm started moving in and I saw a huge bolt of lightning come down and strike the ground out towards town in the valley.

It took me 1hour 40 minutes to reach the summit. I thought I pushed pretty hard. I got down in like 1 hour 20 minutes and I ran hard the whole way down except 2 stretches of maybe 150feet. So this didnt add up . I did hang out at the top for a little bit.

So spurred on by lightning and rain I got back to my jeep for a round trip total of 3hours almost exactly including my break at the top. So for a total of 9 miles I averaged 3 miles an hour or 20 minutes a mile. This was very humbling to my ego because I ran hard but becase of the 1.5 miles of walking it averaged my time out to a turtle pace. I plan on doing this in 2:30. Hopefully at the end of july I'll do a double caliente in 6 hours. The 1.5 mile summit trail took as long as the 3 miles out. Well Ill just stop making excuses and admit that I got flogged.

I really dug this run. easy to follow mostly, but a bit rough. I hear there is a way to link an old jeep forest road out to the summit trail instead of the 3 mile climb I took. I think I'll just stick to the single track, Ill probably run this again on tuesday-mid day again- depending on the weather.

Oh yeah there is no way I could or would want to ride this on my bike...that 's nuts I would like to see someone ride that, actually no I wouldnt cause they would probably have to be airlifted out.