https://www.phoenixmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/PHM0817CH01.jpg

Standard trail etiquette requires that all users yield to horses – especially when the horse is Ginger. It’s impossible not to succumb to the charms of the beautiful, rust-colored Missouri Fox Trotter mare who frequently treks White Mountains trails with her best friend Curtis Winder of Snowflake.

https://www.phoenixmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/PHM0717CH01-01.jpg

Don’t look for Mike “Te-Wa” Stivers on an easy trail. Although the Ohio transplant began his Arizona hiking adventures as a 7-year-old on the popular Piestewa Peak trail in Phoenix, he has since developed a preference for “bigger, bolder, rockier and more intense mountains.”

https://www.phoenixmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/PHM0617GE07-1.jpg

When he turned 62, Jim Buyens had a big decision to make. “I weighed 325 pounds, and was way out of shape,” the Phoenix resident recalls. “Then a cardiologist told me I had both atrial fibrillation and congestive heart failure. At that point, I decided getting in shape was a choice between living to 65 or 85, and I chose 85.”

https://www.phoenixmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/PHM0517CH01.jpg

Valley psychotherapist Sarah Matheson feels that hiking can be very complementary to the therapeutic or recovery process. “It has been shown that time in nature can be critical to those struggling with PTSD, and moderate exercise has been shown to be very helpful with mild-to-moderate depression and anxiety,” she says. “It’s also a way people [can] feel more connected to a higher power or to humanity as a whole.”