There's nothing worse that getting the stomach flu, except getting the stomach flu while the extended family is indisposed and John is traveling internationally on business.  That's what happened to me during the week of August 18.  While John was in Jamaica to work, the Guckenburgs were out of town, and Bill was in hospital having knee-replacement surgery, I came down with the stomach flu - and not just one of those nasty 24-hour bugs, like the one I had the night of the blind date.  No, this one hung around for four solid days and had wiped out about half of my co-workers as well. 

And I still had to take care of Mary, by myself.  One night - the night before John flew home from Jamaica, Mary called John to talk to him and started off the conversation by saying, "Daddy, Mommy is really sick."  Which, of course, had him worried until I talked to him later that evening.

John returned home from Jamaica on Friday night, and on Saturday, he spent the day recovering from his trip - and I spent the day trying to keep food down.  On Sunday, though, he insisted that we go hiking, ill or not, because he just couldn't tolerate sitting at home another day.  He recommended that we do the Fatman's Loop, a 2.2 mile long loop trail in Flagstaff, at the base of Mount Elden.  If we felt up to it, we could summit Mount Elden, too...but only if I felt up to it.

I was still a touch nauseated when we awoke on Sunday morning to go hiking.  Despite that, I still got out of bed and got moving.  Slowly but surely, we pulled it together and got out of the house, but it took a lot of effort on my part. 

Gear loaded and lunch packed, we all piled into the Camry and started out towards Flagstaff, heading north on I-17.  Along the way, we stopped at Camp Verde to use the facilities and to buy a couple of snacks for the road.  After that, we continued driving north until we came to the junction with I-40, on the outskirts of Flagstaff.  From there, we took I-40 east for a few miles, to the exit for US 89. 

We located the Elden Lookout Trailhead along US 89, near the Peaks Ranger Station and just past the Flagstaff Mall.  Yes, we were going to be doing a city hike - not something that we do very often, and actually, it was something that we tried to avoid.  And because it was a city hike - and a popular one at that - the trailhead was packed with vehicles that morning.  Lucky for us, someone was just leaving as we pulled in, so we were able to grab that person's parking spot!

After we geared up and slathered on the sunscreen, we started hiking the Fatman's Loop Trail, which began along a wide footpath that led into the forest.  A few minutes later, we came to a fork in the trail, where the loop began and ended.  We continued to go straight to take the loop counter-clockwise. 

At that point, the trail began to climb - gently at first, but gradually becoming steeper and steeper the closer we got to Mount Elden.  This was where I really started to feel weak from the illness; I was even lagging behind my eight year-old, the one who is normally lagging behind!

The trail continued to climb, higher and higher, for about a mile, before it peaked at the junction with the Elden Lookout Trail.  That was when we had to make the critical decision: do we climb Elden, or do we just finish the loop?  I voted to skip the climb up Mount Elden; my stomach just wasn't going to be able to handle it.  And so, with that, we continued along the Fatman's Loop.

Upon leaving the Elden Lookout junction, the Fatman's Loop Trail soon became very interesting.  Large boulders could be found at every turn, and that peaked Mary's interest.  Even as young as three years old, Mary has been fascinated with scaling boulders and rock climbing.  Some of her favorite hiking adventures involved "bouldering" (as we called it): Tonto Bridge, our road trip through Colorado and Utah, and Red Mountain, just to name a few...

We came upon one boulder that was about twenty feet tall and slanted in such a way that it was very easy for Mary to scale it.  Both she and John quickly scrambled to the top and sat down to enjoy the scenery.

Getting down was another story, though; that part wasn't nearly as easy for Mary...although, with a little guidance from John, she did just fine.  She just didn't know where to put her feet, and that was a little unsettling for her.  Once she was close to the bottom, though, she hopped down the rest of the way without a problem.

Continuing on, we found even better boulders!  Even I found these boulders fascinating.  There were several of them in a cluster, and they formed sort of a grotto, into which we could climb.  It was a little bit of a tight fit for me and John, but Mary crawled in without a problem.  (It helps to be small.)  Inside, it was shaded (and therefore nice and cool), so I sat down and enjoyed being out of the hot sun while Mary and John climbed around like a couple of mountain goats.

Eventually, we left the cluster of boulders and moved on along the trail.  From that point on, the boulders were too difficult to scale, so Mary and John didn't do any more rock climbing.

We stopped to eat lunch under an old juniper tree, under which there were four perfect sitting boulders.  John and Mary plowed through their lunch, but I could only stomach about half of mine.  I was so glad that I didn't climb up Elden that day; I imagine that I would have probably hurled before reaching the top.

After lunch, we continued on our hike - we didn't have much further to go.  Up until that point, the trail had been descending at a steady pace; now it was beginning to level out.  A few minutes later, we came upon the junction with the Christmas Trail; then, we crested a short hill and passed through the fence again.  Finally, around 12:30 p.m., we reached the end of the loop.  From there, it was only two-tenths of a mile to the car.

So, despite feeling ill, I managed to complete the 2.2 mile loop without keeling over, although I was very tired when we were done hiking.  On the way home from Flagstaff, while John drove and Mary slept, I rested quietly in the car; and after we arrived at home, I crawled right back into bed...

True, I probably should not have been hiking that day, but maybe the exercise was actually good for me, to help work the bug out of my system.  By Tuesday, I was finally on the mend, keeping food down without all the nausea.  It felt good to be whole again...

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