Filiberto’s and Altitude Training

Have you ever had a meal or a horchata at Filiberto’s? Life changing stuff, really. I wish we had such a food chain at home in Oklahoma.

Prescott is a fairly high elevation town (just a tad higher than Denver) with really good access to nature. Down low there is Watson Lake, and higher you will find Prescott National Forest and the Goldwater Lakes. Roads from town will lead you straight to a large number of free, designated dispersed camping spots, which will fill up during the busy season but are pretty lightly used in the winter.

I have spent a lot of time camping outside of Prescott, and hiking some of it's trails. I had begun to altitude train by repeatedly hiking up to around 8,000ft, in preperation for my ambitious goal to summit Humphreys Peak by Flagstaff. I often found myself bopping between this region and the Coconino National Forest.

Winter nights in these regions did not usually dip much below 20F, so it wasn't too bad. I found myself hiking in mid day for the best comfort. I met some people along the trails sometimes but it was typically pretty quiet.

One thing I always liked to do in these towns (besides Filiberto's) was to take a picnic table at city parks and prepare myself a meal. At the time I was still using an ice chest (a practice I put down during the hot summer) so I would make myself some ham and egg burritos with a protein bar. I also liked to use swingsets on the playgrounds, if they were empty. I found myself swinging a lot in the early mornings.

When I was a kid, I used to jump off the swings midway and land on the ground. On this morning in Flagstaff at an empty park, I decided to try it again, it just sounded fun. I landed wrong and immediately felt pain in my right foot. This turned out to be a serious injury that put all my hiking on hold for weeks. I was no longer returning to Prescott for my training hikes, as walking or putting boots on was immensely painful. The injury was bad enough that I had to use the motorcarts when shopping for groceries, and I ended up camping on the outskirts of Flagstaff and Prescott while not really being able to do much. It was very unfortunate. Years later, this injury still flares up if I stress the injury area too much. No fun! I never fulfilled my goal of summiting Humphreys Peak, but it's still a goal for my future visits.

Eventually the injury had healed enough that I was able to walk well again. But hiking was still risky, so I didn't do it as much for a while still. I became familiar with the towns as I spent more time there than in the wilderness during those days. If it came to it, I would not mind living in Prescott or Flagstaff. I prefer the desert, but these locations really aren't far from that.