Camelback Mountain! Hold to the Rod. The Iron Rod..

We got up early this morning...and a slow start it was. we dropped my mother off to the airport at about 7 or so, and headed over to Camelback Moutain. we thought it would be somewhat of an easy trail, a little over a mile each way. however, it was a VERY steep trail, parts of it we had to hold to the rod! the iron rod! and other times we were climbing up rocks after rocks, sort of a steep hill that has big rocks everywhere. tons of hikers too! not TOO much but a lot, and lots of dogs. that really kept emma going. was seeing how the dogs were at the top, and having me ask the owners if the dogs liked hiking or not. that question made me feel really stupid, asking dog owners if their dog liked to hike. OBViOUSLy the dog did. but it made emma happy. luckily i only had to ask one owner for emma to be satisfied that all dogs would. and then she really didnt want to continue about half way... she told us that saturday mornins were her day to sleep IN! and that this wasnt very fun to her. and that her legs were tired. it was sorta funny. but then dan and dave had gone alittle ahead to i left audrye and emma cause emma wasnt going anywhere, and then audrey convinced her i had the food and that i might eat the food if she didnt come to with us. it worked! emma caught up to me, and then she was a GREAT hiker !! after that, she hardly complained at all. everybody commented on how cute she was a what a good hiker she was. dave and dan were ahead of us most of the time , me and audrey and emma, because emma was a little slower since she is still quite small, some of the rocks were harder for her to climb over quickly. but thats okay, we had fun! the summit was very cool, you could see Mt Lemon all the way in Tuscon. well, heres some pictures! enjoy! Oh, and we took lots of breaks, we left at 8 exactly and were back in the car by 11:20. a little longer than we thought, but we did hang out on the summit for a little while.