South Mountain Park-National and Mormon Loop Trail

Distance: 6.0 m
Time: 1:01
Location: South Mountain Park- National and Mormon Loop Trails
Total Miles: 71.1 m
Total Time: 11:43

What was to be a 2 hour excursion in the mountains in Phoenix today turned into an 8 hour life and death struggle in the wind-swept peaks of central Arizona.........ok, it was not that dramatic but let me give you a quick recap of the days events. After picking up my buddy Aaron and heading out for a nice 6 mile run in the park this morning I went through my regular double checking of the pockets as we exited the truck to make sure I had taken my truck key off of my key ring, and upon further inspection I found it right there in my pocket......good job Logan! We started off down and up the trailhead weaving through the canyon walls, echoing our heartbeats off the stone cliffs until we made the turn around to head back atop Mormon Loop Trail just north of Two Peaks. The run was ok but I did feel a little bit of pain afterwards in my left foot which I believe I may have tweaked while stepping on a sharp rock awkwardly early in the run. Other than that it was simply an average run, albeit a little sluggish as all early morning runs usually are for me without a warmup. Aaron was a good sport considering this was his first taste of any kind of a run with some serious uphill work in it, and he impressed me with the fact that he pushed through to the end with a decent pace. But then the floor caved in. After running out the last few hundredths of a mile in the parking lot to round out the 6 mile run I fingered through my pockets and pulled out my 2007 Toyota Scion key. "Hmmm" I thought for a moment. I knew something was not right. I then realized that I did not drive the Toyota today, I drove the Ford F-150 today. So, to make a long, long story and day short, after using "Queen Bee's" phone to make a phone call in the one spot on the mountain that got reception I got ahold of my buddy Rob whom in turn called 5 locksmith's whom in turn said they either could not find our truck atop Buena Vista Lookout or they did not service that area of the country, ie the middle of nowhere where noone should be let alone running. After 3 hours of sitting, sleeping, urinating and conversing about the state of unicycles in today's pop-culture, a nice, fresh-faced 25year old Israeli Surfer(not Argentinian Logan, geez) fresh from New Zealand showed up drove us up the 8 mile deserted highway, past the towers which he said give off, "radiation", and in one fell swoop with his nifty inflatable balloon contraption, was successful in breaking into our truck, thus enabling us to drink our scalding hot G2 Gatorade which lay exposed on the seat. After a hefty tip to the youngster and couple of well wishes we descended the mountain top which we had come to know like a twin brother and stumbled back into the civilized world which waited down below. Another days work.