Photos from Ventana Canyon Hiking

I'm thinking that I have been having some episodes of exercise-induced asthma, and that's why I'm having trouble with getting out of breath, having chest tightness, and profound weakness. It's not constant, but i reach a point where I just feel like I can't go on. I rest a bit, do some pursed-lip breathing, and it clears. Recently, the pollen counts here have been very high and the air has been much drier than before.

While this may be a case of "sophomoritis" -- a condition of 2nd-year med students who think that they have every disease that they study -- with my long history of asthma, I think it's reasonable to think that I have this, and that that is my problem. I'm going to try using my "rescue" inhaler as a prophylactic, before I go cycling or hiking again. I'm basing this treatment on my interpretations of this article. If you're a doctor, or you know one, and this is a dumb idea for me, I appreciate your letting me know. I miss one certain doctor very much.

So the hike yesterday was.. difficult for me. We hiked in Ventana Canyon, one of the hikes that we did when Dave was here in early March. That hike is about 1200 feet of up.

There were a couple of young women who were hiking and had gotten a bit off the trail, it seemed. They were ready to head back, but the guys (Duane and Jack) convinced them to come ahead with us. We all meandered around a bit, before finally finding the proper trail.

I hike more slowly than just about anyone, I'm convinced, so they were all scampering on ahead of me, while I plodded along at my own pace. But while I was lonesome for conversation, I did enjoy the scenery and the wildflowers.. and these cute little lizards that like to pose:



When I arrived at the Maiden Pools, Duane was already there, with his feet in the water. I enjoyed my sandwich and trail mix, along with Gatorade. I drank very nearly all the water and Gatorade I had brought -- 65 oz total.





There were little frogs which had come up out of one of the ponds, onto the grayish stone face. The frogs matched the rock very well, don't you think?




I shot some photos of the pools and the scene looking down toward Tucson.








Today has been a busy day for me! I called a locksmith to remove the hitch lock that we had put onto our RV's hitch last spring. I have no idea where the key is, but I suspect that Michael took it with him. The locksmith had no way of getting the thing apart without drilling out the lock, which he did. $70 for that lost key, plus the cost of a new hitch lock -- about $15.

I grabbed John and we headed off to Camping World and found a hitch lock. Then we went to Performance Bicycles and got a bike rack. The bike rack went together easily with John's help, but the hitch lock is too big! I'll return it tomorrow.