Thursday, September 24, 2015

The College Life

I moved down to Flagstaff, Arizona at the end of August to attend Northern Arizona University and am rooming with my brother in the Honors dorm.  The reason I point out were in the Honors dorm is that there is a 24 hour quiet rule which is great for me because I go to bed around 9 which I hear isn't the norm in college.  Actually, I think some people go to bed closer to when I get up, 6, then when I go to bed.
All my classes are interesting which makes them enjoyable.  The only downside is the start of Calc 2 seems to be a lot of review of the math I learned in Calc 1 but I figure it will be hard enough as the semester goes on.  Also, chemistry, an interesting subject for sure, is a little boring because I learned everything we covered so far.  That okay though because its easy to finish the work which means more time to run...
Which is a big part of why I chose NAU.  Flagstaff and the surrounding area has some incredible running.  Every day I have been able to get out to the trails starting out of Buffalo Park.  At this point I'm still exploring the area and finding new trails every day.  One of my favorite parts of running is learning an area and its trails which is what I'm doing right now in Flagstaff.  At this point my running has been fairly limited because I'm still getting back into shape after taking some time off this summer due to injury.  I'm pretty bummed I got hurt, mostly because it was easily preventable and I never should have had to take time off.  Anyhow, I'm smarter now and because of this I've been extremely cautions building back into my running.  With that said, I've been able to get out enough to see some sweet trails.
A Indian Paintbrush on Dry Lake Hills

Some sweet trail starting a little west of Mt. Elden

Looking off Mt. Elden toward Oak Creek Canyon

Mt. Elden

Some deer about a 1/4 mile below the summit of Mt. Elden

Fall colors-boy did they change fast

A rainy day, is actually pouring at this point

This short section felt like I should be in Oregon

Clouds and hills

Outside of running around Flagstaff, my brother and I have headed down to Sedona for a day and to the Grand Canyon where we spent a night before hiking out the next day.  Both places capture the beauty of the Southwest and were awesome adventures.  The plans for the coming months are to head down to the Grand Canyon fairly frequently and keep enjoying all Flagstaff has to offer.  One local goal of mine is to make it up Humphrey Peak soon.  Its a long haul from Buffalo Park so it might be a little while before that happens but that's something to look forward to in the future.  Also, I hoping to run Rim to Rim to Rim in the Grand Canyon in November.

There's lot of sharp things in Arizona-I think they are called cactus


This rock formation was incredible, I just couldn't get over the symmetry



Jacob after we scrambled up some slick rock




Some small crystals in the rock



Looking out over the Grand Canyon

It felt like vacation



Some crazy layers in the rock


Evening

The moon-its always so bright in Arizona



The morning sun

Jacob



Indian Paintbrush just below the rim

One last look, man is it awesome!