"The Lava Flow Trail"

After returning from our vacations in Eloy and Cancun, John and Mary and I found ourselves back in the daily grind. John began working very long hours - even weekends - to make sure that the new payroll system was running correctly. By the time New Year's Day rolled around, he was completely exhausted and needed to take a break. Once John determined that he would be able to take a weekend off, he suggested that we go hiking on January 4, so that we could get out of the house. He also wanted to go explore a new wilderness area - perhaps either the Arrastra or the Harquahala Wilderness Areas. Then, a phone call from his father changed all of that: Bill wanted to go skydiving that weekend…with John. Instead of canceling our plans to go hiking, John decided on a compromise: we would go hiking AND skydiving! He suggested that we do a half-day hike the Lava Flow Trail in the Table Top Wilderness Area, located off of I-8 on Vekol Road, and then we would drive to Eloy so that John could make a couple of jumps with his father before sunset. I liked the idea, so that was what we planned to do. On Saturday morning, January 4, John and Mary and I packed up the Jeep with our gear (including John's parachute and gear bag) and set out to find the Lava Flow Trailhead. According to the information that we had downloaded from the Bureau of Land Management web site, the Lava Flow Trail is one of two trails found in the Table Top Wilderness Area. The trail is 7.25 miles long and can be accessed via one of three trailheads: North, West, and South. (The South trailhead is also used to access the Table Top Trail, which we hiked in March 1999, in the days when we were in better shape.) Both the North and the West trailheads required a four-wheel drive vehicle to get there, whereas the South trailhead required a high-clearance vehicle only. We decided that it would be more fun to drive to the North trailhead, rather than the West or the South, because it appeared to be the shortest distance from the highway. To get there, we took I-10 to Maricopa Road, took that through the town of Maricopa, then continued on towards I-8. Once on the interstate, we drove west until we came to exit 144 - the Vekol Valley exit - where we left the freeway and turned left. After crossing over the bridge, we took Vekol Road for 0.7 miles then turned left onto a side road. That road paralleled the highway for 2.8 miles; then, we had to turn off onto yet another side road and drive along there for 2.3 miles. Finally, we turned onto one last dirt road and took that the last 3.3 miles to the trailhead. Of course, getting there wasn't as easy as I made it sound. In fact, we got lost and had to backtrack several times before we ended up on the right roads. The correct roads were marked with "trail" signs, but somehow we kept missing them and taking the wrong roads. Although we eventually made it to the trailhead, it wasn't until 10:00 a.m., because of all those setbacks. Once we made it to the trailhead, John and I took a few moments to prepare for our hike, while Mary looked for rocks to throw. She had a great time climbing on the small boulders near the information kiosk - they were just short enough for her to climb on with ease. She was enjoying it so much that she put up a fight when it came time for John to put her in the carrier for the hike! (The tears dried up, though, when we let her take her Babbling Boo doll with her on the hike - even though it meant that we would have to listen to it talk the whole time!) We began hiking the Lava Flow Trail around 10:15 that morning. Immediately after leaving the trailhead and entering the wilderness area, the trail crossed through a wash then followed a wide path at the base of a small hill for about a quarter of a mile. As it turned to the right, we came to a trail registry, where we found a logbook to sign and BLM maps and information to keep. While signing our names in the book, we took a second to scan over the other entries, to see who had last been in the wilderness area. Two other groups had been there during the last two weeks, as well as a ranger checking up on the area. The last group to pass through there left a note for the ranger about a pair of bicycles that they had found while hiking there last week. We found the bicycles within a half-mile from the trail registry. One of them was laying to the left of the trail; the other was in a wash further up the path. Both bicycles were rusted, with flat tires, and they looked as though they had been there for a while; the ranger had probably seen them, too, but didn't feel it necessary to remove them. From the trail registry, the trail became narrower (although it was still wide enough for two people), and it wound through the beautiful desert, in and out of washes, past ocotillos and saguaros at the base of the Black Mountains. It was a rather easy-going hike, as it was mostly flat - we were able to hike at a good clip of about two and a half miles an hour. At 11:30, having hiked an hour, we reached an intersection with a jeep road, which (we guessed) would take us to the West trailhead. From there, we decided to turn left and keep going, in hopes that we could find the trailhead and have lunch there. Once we were on the jeep road, we let Mary out of the baby carrier to do a little bit of hiking on her own. I even put her backpack on her, but she took it back off again and decided that she wanted to carry it instead. She toted it proudly as she hiked beside me, laughing as she went - what a wonderful time she was having! We hiked on the jeep road for about twenty minutes without coming to the West trailhead - it was possible that we had gone the wrong way. Since it was almost noon, we decided to stop right there and eat our lunch under a nice shade tree. Our lunch break was very peaceful, because John and Mary and I had discovered perfect solitude. We had the whole trail to ourselves, and it was wonderfully quiet and serene there. Add to that the perfect weather - temperatures were in the 80's - and I would say that it was shaping up to be a perfect day. After lunch, we lingered around under the shade tree and played with Mary - she was having a terrific time on the hike and had become quite giggly. She especially enjoyed stealing John's hat and putting it on her head. It was too big for her and she couldn't see out from underneath it, but she didn't care, because it was more fun than wearing her own hat. Around 12:30, we decided to start heading back to the trailhead, so that we could still make it to the drop zone before the last jump of the day. With Mary once again the baby carrier, John and I hiked back along the jeep road to the trail junction, where he announced that he wanted to see where that road went. He, too, thought that we had gone the wrong way, so he thought that he would confirm that by checking it out. He only hiked for about five minutes, and when he didn't see the trailhead, he gave up and hiked back to me. From the trail junction, it was an hour's hike back to the car, during which time Mary tried to take a short nap in the carrier without much success. Meanwhile, John and I hiked quietly, taking in the scenery and enjoying the peacefulness of the afternoon. Once we reached the trail registry, it was time for Mary to hike by herself again. There, the trail was easy for her to follow, and the walk would be good for her. John took her out of the carrier, and she followed us part of the way back to the car…except for the areas where she needed to be carried on John's shoulders. We reached the Jeep just before 2:00 p.m. Instead of lingering at the trailhead to rest, John and Mary and I got into the car and immediately started driving towards I-8, to Casa Grande and Eloy. On the way back, we were fortunate to find a short-cut back to I-8. Near the point where the first and the second dirt roads intersected, the first road continued on and eventually ended at a gate, off the side of the highway. Instead of driving 2.8 miles back to the Vekol Valley interchange, we saved ourselves the time by going through the gate! It took us about forty-five minutes to get to Skydive Arizona from there, and during that time, Mary took another short nap…only to wake up again when we arrived at the drop zone. We found John's parents in their motor home, parked next to the main landing area, at the end of the team rooms. They had decided to camp there for the New Year's holiday so that Bill could make some jumps…and so that Erika could get out of the house. And what a wonderful time they had, too - they even got to do the midnight champagne flight on the DC-3 on New Year's Eve. (When John and I heard this, we both pouted, because we didn't do anything fun that night! John worked until 10:30.) John made one jump with his father, and he did one other jump after that, too. Then, after the last load of the day landed, the three of us said goodbye to Bill and Erika and started our long drive home. Our adventurous day was over.

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