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With the arrival of winter weather in Arizona, John and I
found ourselves reluctant to go hiking, despite the fact we had a three-day
weekend (for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day). In the days before Mary was born,
we would have gone anyway, sick or well, but with Mary in our lives now,
things have become very different. We have found ourselves canceling numerous
hiking and backpacking trips due to colds and chilly weather, and this weekend
was no exception. Our initial plans were to go backpacking or camping in the
Organ Pipe National Monument, but when the winter weather rolled in, we
quickly canceled our plans for fear that Mary would get sick.
We also canceled our plans to day hike on Saturday and Sunday because Mary had
come down with a nasty cough, leftover from the cold she had had during
Christmas. Instead, we kept Mary indoors while we worked around the house. On
Saturday, we cleaned out the laundry room, Arizona room, and the tool shed.
Then, on Sunday, John poured the concrete to complete another stage of the
transformation of our shed into a laundry room.
On Monday, however, we were determined to get away from the house to do
something fun. John had suggested that we go for a hot air balloon ride, so
that I could use the gift certificate that he had given to me for Christmas in
1999. His plan was to get his mother, Erika, to baby-sit Mary while we went on
our balloon ride; then we would take her on a day hike, perhaps in the
Superstitions. Those plans were canceled, though, because Burner (who runs the
hot air balloon rides) never called us back to let us know if there were
openings.
We still wanted to go hiking, so we opted to do the
Go John Trail in the Cave
Creek Recreation Area, north of Phoenix. I had been intrigued with this trail
ever since I had first seen the write up about it on the
azcentral.com Hike of
the Week section. Since John didn't have any other ideas for day hikes, he
agreed to it, but he suggested that we tack a couple of miles onto the hike,
just to make it a little more challenging. Instead of doing the 4.8-mile long
Go John Loop, we would add the Overton Trail to that, making it a six-mile
long loop - and, if we were have a rough hike, we would always have to option
of skipping the Overton Trail.
For this hike, we were going to have the chance to try something new. On
Sunday afternoon, Bill and Erika brought over an backpack-style infant carrier
that belonged to Janice and Danny, who said that we could borrow it until they
were ready to use it. They, of course, had not yet had their baby - Janice was
thirty-nine weeks pregnant and was more than ready to have her baby! We knew
that they were going into the hospital that evening to have a Cervadel done.
(Keep in mind that this is the same thing that triggered my labor when I had
Mary, so my bets were that they would have their baby sometime Monday.)
Monday morning rolled around with no word from Janice and Danny, so at 9:30
a.m. John and Mary and I picked up Erika at her house and drove to the Cave
Creek Recreational Area to do our day hike. As she got into the car, she
handed us her cell phone and asked us to plug it in, just in case we got the
call we were waiting for. She was also planning to bring the phone with us on
the hike, knowing that we would be able to get a cellular signal while on the
trail, in case it happened while we were hiking.
To get to the trailhead, we took Cave Creek Road north to the Carefree
Highway, then turned left. The recreation area was located on the right, a few
miles down the highway. After paying the $3 fee, we followed the main road all
the way to the Go John Trailhead, which was easy to find as it was well
marked. It was 10:15 when we arrived, but we didn't start hiking until 10:30,
as we had to make sure that Mary was well bundled and diapered before loading
her into the backpack. Then, John put the backpack with Mary in it on my back
- we had decided that I would be the guinea pig to test this new method for
carrying our daughter on the trail, since John's back was hurting from hauling
bags of concrete. Finally, once we were ready, we hit the trail, stopping
first for the traditional trail kiss.
The Go John Trail, though listed as difficult, was far from it - in fact,
except for a few steep climbs that were never more than a quarter of a mile
long, I would consider the trail to be moderately easy. It began with a short,
flat walk through the desert that gradually began to climb towards a pass. As
it approached the pass, the trail became steeper, but it wasn't long before we
were at the top. That was where we stopped and took a short breather - and we
admired the scenery, too. Despite the fact we could still see signs of
civilization (i.e. the houses to the north of us), we found that the desert
was very pretty. There were lots of lush chollas scattered throughout the
brush, and among them were tall saguaros, some of which were two to three
stories tall but had no arms!
As we continued along, the trail began to follow a ridgeline and gradually
climbed towards another pass, where we stopped again so that John could "water
the trees". As he disappeared into the brush, we were passed by a group of
horseback riders, each of whom stopped to admire our "sleeping beauty" - Mary
had fallen asleep in the backpack. We could hear her breathing loudly against
the nylon cloth of the pack, as her face was pressed up against it!
By the time John finished answering the call of nature, Mary was awake again -
probably because she was no longer being lulled to sleep by my movements. As
we got underway again, Mary became very "chatty" - she babbled and squealed as
she watched the scenery go by, obviously enjoying the ride. I, too, was
enjoying the ride; the backpack carrier was surprisingly comfortable, despite
the frame (I'm not a big fan of external frames) and the weight that I was
carrying (Mary and my camelback bladder). Unlike the Snugli, the backpack had
a frame and hip belt, which helped to disperse the weight evenly between the
shoulders and the hips. The Snugli, on the other hand, pulled on the shoulders
and eventually caused back pain after a few miles of hiking. At any rate, I
found that this backpack carrier had a definite advantage over the Snugli for
day hiking - I told John that we should probably invest in one.
The Go John Trail flattened out for a while, which made for a very pleasant
hike. As we crossed the desert, we could see Go John Peak to our right, and
directly in front of us, we could see suburbia - housing developments in the
town of Cave Creek. John told us that he had read an article describing this
trail as an escape from civilization, though we would still be close to the
city; so why did we still see houses? He was still waiting for the escape.
Eventually, the trail began to curve to the west, and we began another climb
up to a pass, where we found a pile of jagged rocks on which we decided to
take a long break (Mary was becoming a little fussy, too). As we settled down,
I pulled Mary out of the carrier and began to feed her, and Erika took out her
cell phone to call Bill for any news about Janice - of course, there was none.
Meanwhile, John played with the carrier to see if he could better adjust it -
Mary seemed to be seated a little bit too low in it, so he wanted to raise her
up a bit. He managed to adjust it to its highest setting, and when we put her
back in, she seemed to be more comfortable. We also discovered that the
carrier had one other advantage over the Snugli: we could feed Mary solid
foods in it! The carrier had a "kick-stand" that enabled us to stand it
upright on the ground. With Mary seated upright like that, it was so much
easier to feed her the applesauce we had brought for her lunch!
While I fed Mary her applesauce, John and Erika admired the jagged rocks. John
called them schist rocks; he said that he had been reading about them and was
fascinated by them. Next to us, there was a six-foot tall formation made from
these "schist" rocks. When I pointed out that it looked like a throne, John
retorted, "Yeah, it was discovered by a guy named Lindler!" Lindler? "Yeah,
it's Lindler's Schist!" D'oh! (There's a comedian in every crowd!)
Once we were fully rested - and Mary was full - we continued on our way. The
trail, which was now headed west, followed the contour for a while, and
eventually the houses could no longer be seen as we passed by a large hill
that stood to our right. It was there that all signs of civilization finally
disappeared.
As the trail continued to wind through the desert, we were given some
wonderful views of the surrounding mountains, and we also found many
interesting things - such as old abandoned mines! It's hard not to be
fascinated by large holes in the ground surrounded by fences and warning signs
("Warning: Old Mines are Death Traps"). One mine that we found was right next
to a trail, next to a switchback; there was a short spur trail leading to it.
We approached it carefully and took pictures of it; John also threw a stone
into it to try to determine just how deep it was - it took several seconds for
us to hear the "crack" as the stone hit bottom.
We stopped for lunch at the bottom of a wash, in a pretty riparian area near
the junction with the Overton Trail. John found a little grassy area off of
the trail, where we all sat down and enjoyed a nice, quiet lunch. (Erika was
going to call for news again, but she was unable to get a good signal.)
After lunch - and after we were rested - we hit the trail again. The trail
immediately began to climb steeply out of the wash until we reached the trail
junction. Since we were all feeling good, we decided to do the extended trip
and take the Overton Trail, which added another two miles to our hike - this
would easily take us an hour. From the trail junction, the Overton Trail began
to climb once again before following a ridgeline that bordered on state trust
land. In fact, at one point, the trail actually left the park and entered the
trust land - it was here that we also encountered the steepest part of the
trail. The old trail had been closed and re-routed onto the trust land. The
new trail took us downhill for several hundred yards then took us steeply back
up an old, rocky jeep road. And what a climb that was! Except for Mary, we
were all huffing and puffing when we reached the top.
Once the climb was finished, the Overton Trail continued along the ridgeline
until we reached the picnic areas along the main road - which meant that our
hike was almost over. It wasn't long before we were hiking on pavement for the
last tenth of a mile, as the Overton Trail followed the main road and ended at
the Go John Trailhead.
We made it back to the car at 2:00 p.m., and as we drove away, Erika called
Bill one last time to see if there had been any news from Janice and Danny -
but again, there was no news. Naturally, we were all getting concerned - and I
was completely convinced that Janice was indeed in labor.
After dropping Erika off at home, John and Mary and I returned home around
3:00 p.m. Less than an hour later, we finally heard from Danny - they were
indeed at Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn, where the doctors were inducing
Janice, because the Cervadel didn't work as well as they had planned. They had
turned on the pitocin, and she had been given Stadol for the pain, but she was
only dilated one centimeter - they still had a long way to go...
...But at 10:00 p.m. that night, we got the news: Janice had given birth to a
baby boy - Joshua Alexander. He was born just after 9:00 p.m. and weighed six
pounds, fifteen ounces, and was nineteen and a quarter inches long.
What a nice way to end the day! |
