Padre Canyon Hike

On a Spur of the moment, Adam and I decided to go for a hike. Adam had done 3/4 of the hike with the YM and had been wanting me to go with him and do the entire hike.  So we decided just to do it. He told me it was going to be intense but I guess I chose not to listen...

So far so good. Loved seeing all the backlot's as we hiked by...little did I know the hike I was in for. It was the Padre Canyon Hike that started at Tuacahn, went up and over the cliffs behind Tuacahn around to the sand dunes in Snow Canyon and then back around to Tuacahn. 

The views and scenery were awesome. 

Heading up the incline. I'm not going to lie I wanted to cry but I didn't, I just kept pushing myself, telling myself I can do hard things over and over again. When it became too unbearable I put in my air pods and tried to dance my way to the top. It was a hot day with an occasional cloud cover and breeze which saved us. 

About 3/4 of the way up the incline I spotted a cave with some shade and it called to me. We stopped for a break. I laid down in the cool dirt, sipping on the camelback and was good to go in no time. 

Views from my cave...Tuacahn, looking back

We started hiking again with the top in sight and finally made it. It was so exhilarating knowing we just tackled something so intense. 

The top

Rockstars

Heading down the backside of the cliffs towards Snow Canyon, brought amazing sights and views again 

Adam said in his entire life living here he had never seen a lizard like this.

And then, just when we thought our legs were going to give out on us, we hit the sand dunes and had to wade through it. 

But we did it. We made it to Snow Canyon and stopped to rest, eat, drink and splash ourselves with cool water before heading out again. At this point we had reached 5 miles into our hike. 

We made our way through Snow Canyon and were on the last leg heading back toward Tuacahn. We could see it in the distance but it did not seem to get closer as we walked and walked, putting one foot in front of the other. We made it to the gate of Tuacahn when the chills set in and I knew I was seeing the first signs to heat stroke. I tried to push through it. I wanted to finish so bad. I had made it this far, I wanted to just get to the truck about 1/8 mile away now. But I had to finally listen to my body. I looked at Adam and said, you'd better go get the truck. I plopped down in the dirt under a tree and just laid there. Little ants were biting my ankles and I didn't even care. Adam said "don't pass out" and took off running. I hollered after him to not run but I knew better. How he ran after hiking that long I'll never know. Within a few minutes a heard the roar of this truck and made it to my feet and started walking toward the road.  Adam came running down the wash where I was with ice cold water bottles in each hand..my knight and shining armor..Haha! Our bodies hurt so bad but we felt great. We had just hiked 4 hours and 7.25 miles. We are freaking rockstars!!!