Lone Mountain Hike With Champ

After coming to the realization that I've pretty much been "on the couch" for over two weeks now, I absolutely HAD to do something active today, but  I wanted to do something different.  No early morning cold/dark ride, no running, and no swimming (I am swimming tomorrow).  The idea of a hike up Black Mountain, with Champ, is what I eventually settled in on.  Two major issues quickly came to mind; 1) Hopefully my "knee area" would be able to handle the climb & decent, 2) Hopefully Champ would be able to make it as this is a pretty rocky vertical climb.  I've done this hike a few times before and it definitely puts a burn into your quads.

The ultimate destination (the peak on the left) as seen from my subdivision entrance:

The actual starting point is about a 10 minute drive from this location.  Immediately after starting out, Champ took me on a pace that was much faster than I would have liked, but there is now way I was gonna let my pooch show me up.  As a result, I was scurrying up the fairly groomed trail while he kept the leash tight.  Hopefully, after more of these, I will be able to let him off so that I'm not slowing him down!  He hopped rocks, jumped over cactus, and hustled up small cliffs with ease.  Once at the top, I poured him some water and took in the view.  I eventually took out the camera and started snapping some pics before heading back down.

At the top:

The way down actually took longer than going up.  Champ wanted to run down every chance he had, but doing that would have sent me tumbling down the sharp/jagged rocks.  I had to constantly keep him in check and actually had to make him go AFTER me on several occasions!  Just as we were getting to the end of the trail, my feet slipped out from under me and I took a small spill.  I was able to catch myself with my right arm, but luckily nobody was around to witness it.  Champ just looked back at me as to say, "Really dude?!?"  One hour and 16 minutes after we started up, we were safely back at the car.  I'd really like to do this hike more often as it is a great workout AND it's basically right in our backyard.