Boulder Canyon Hike

Amber and I took off today and went on a short hike in the Superstition Mountains. We both agreed it was vital to our mental health to get out of Tempe for a while, so, after making a fabulous breakfast this morning (pancakes, eggs, strawberries & blueberries), we headed east.
I'm not sure which was more beautiful, the drive up there or actually getting there and doing the hike. What a great, scenic road that was. We drove with the windows down and the music up, arms out the windows.

When we finally got up into the mountains and started hiking we were both absolutely shocked by how quiet it was. We stood at the edge of the cliff and looked out over the canyon below us, and there was absolute silence - the kind of silence that makes your ears start to ring. It was so incredible to me that something so big could be so quiet. That huge valley was completely still, and nothing moved. It was so unbelievably relaxing. Our student lives are filled with constant stimulation and noise and distraction - it was really refreshing to go to a place where you'd swear that time itself had stopped.

We met a man at the "summit" (I say "summit" because that's where we decided to stop and sit down and look at the view - we ended up calling it quits and going back down after that) who offered to take our picture. We got into conversation with him on the way down the mountain, during which time he informed us that he had smoked pot all his life (he was 39) and that, despite several decades of hallucinogenic drug use, he had never noticed any "negative side effects." We also described to him what it is that we study at ASU and apparently my course of study, Supply Chain Management, makes no sense to him (after several decades of using pot, I can hardly imagine why). When we told him we were students at ASU he howled, "I thought we were two kids on a date that had hooked up on Match.com or something!" Yes, I'm serious. Honestly, the people you meet on random mountains...
Pot-smoking guy aside, it was a very relaxing afternoon. I've been in "take a nap" mode ever since coming back from the hike and not very productive as a result. But thankfully it's now bedtime and I get to lay my slightly sunburned body down for a good night's sleep.