Weekend On The Mountain

With the summer heat coming on strong, we decided that the first weekend of June would be a good time to escape to the cool mountains of northern Arizona to do some early pre-season scouting, gear testing, and conditioning hikes.  

We got a great hike in on Saturday up to the Inner Basin of the San Francisco Peaks.  While it was a fairly steep hike, both big kids did great!  Kate did well also riding on my back, but fell asleep for a portion of the hike on the way up.  

Sunday a.m. I woke up early and Jack and I headed up the mountain to look for elk and deer and check out a couple of spots I've hunted before.  We saw both elk and deer on our hike, and were back by 8:30 for breakfast with the family.  

Here are some pictures from our weekend.

Home sweet home for the weekend

Kate zonked out in the kid carrier attached to my Mystery Ranch NICE frame

Waterline Road leading up to the Inner Basin

Kate with her 'wishing flower'

The kids and Jack at a rest bench in the inner basin

The crew on the way down

With KUIU coming out with the new Tiburon hot weather line, I wore my Attack pants for the weekend in order to have a good comparison for when I get my Tiburon pants.  My attack pants felt great all weekend, in temps ranging from the 40's to the mid-70's.

Loading the Kelty kid carrier on my NICE frame made it much more comfortable to carry.  I was glad I took the time to do that as it made my ~40lb load much more manageable.