We all met for the hike at the Arizona Snowbowl Upper Lodge parking lot at the agreed upon time of around 9:30 to 10:00 AM. Four people camped in the Flagstaff area the night before, while seven more drove up from Phoenix in the morning.

It’s a 20% chance of rain forecast in Flagstaff in the middle the monsoon season. The day started off sunny but soon turned mostly overcast with dark ominous clouds surrounding the area. Everyone hiked according to their own pace, keeping a close watch on any incoming lightning storm.

Flagstaff got significant amounts of rain the past few days so we’re all a bit concerned about being up the the peak when the next heavy rain storm hits. About half an hour into the hike, Rudy, Lyndon and Charles broke away from the main group and went for the peak at full speed. Sam and Doug decided to only make it to the saddle and headed back down.

The rest slowly made their way up to the peak, taking really good photos of people and scenery in the process. See Andrew Petro’s photos.

While on the trail, we met Jill who was interested in joining us for the rest of the hike and on some of our future hikes. We gladly invited her to join us and gave her our club website.

On the way down, Lyndon, Rudy, Doug, Sam and Charles got back to the trailhead way ahead of the other half of the group. We enjoyed the late afternoon over some cold drinks while we waited for the rest of the group to come back down.

The day ended with no precipitation or lightning. The dark cloudy skies were simply teasing us. We parted ways at around 6:00 PM.