For John's fortieth birthday last year, I gave him a special gift: a new GPS.  Not just any GPS either; I gave him a Garmin Map 60, which is an upgrade from our old Magellan 315.  With that gift brought a whole new realm of adventures for us: the adventure of geo-caching!

John had discovered Geocaching.com a few years ago, and although it seemed like a fascinating diversion, it was something that we had never gotten into to date.  I couldn't tell you why; it was probably because we just didn't think of it when we planned our day or weekend trips.  Now, with the new GPS, John wanted us to start seeking out geo-caches.

We presented the idea to Mary as a "treasure hunt" - sort of like looking for pirate booty.  She was excited about going out to look for treasure, so she couldn't wait to go.

So, on February 10, John announced that we should make a day of looking for geo-caches in the White Tanks Mountains, west of Phoenix.  There was one to be found along the Ford Canyon Trail, about 2.5 miles in.  Based on the location description that we found on the geocaching website, we figured that it wouldn't be too hard to find.  There were even pictures: how easy was that going to be!

We decided to get started on our hike as early as possible that morning, so that we could be done by lunchtime.  One week prior to this hike, we had spent the day at Right Toyota, where we had purchased our first brand new car: a 2007 Toyota Camry, in Barcelona red.  Now we had to show it off, so our plan for that afternoon was to drive it over to my Dad's house in Laveen and take him out to lunch.

So, on Saturday morning, February 10, John and Mary and I drove out to West Phoenix, to White Tank Mountain Regional Park.  After paying our entry fee to get into the park, we drove to the trailhead to start our hike.

The Ford Canyon Trail began at the Ford Canyon Trailhead, several miles into the park.  After parking the car in the parking area, we stepped onto the trail, which immediately descended into a wash then climbed right back out again.  The trail then skirted the wash for about the first half-mile. (We had done this part of the trail before, five years ago, when Mary had first learned how to walk.  She hiked a few feet of the trail by herself.)  This portion of the trail, up to the junction with the Waddell Trail, was very flat and very scenic, as it passed through forests of saguaros and jumping cholla cacti.

Because this trail was so easy, we managed to hike the first 1.5 miles of this trail in about 45 minutes.  That is a very good speed for a six and a half year-old; she was hiking at her strongest that morning, and we were happy to see that.

At about 1.5 to 2 miles, we came to a sign, indicating that the trail, beyond that point, was considered hazardous and that we should only proceed at our own risk.  (In reality, the trail is only hazardous to horseback riders and mountain bikers; it is not as dangerous for hikers.)  At that point, the trail became very narrow, steep and rocky.  The trail also skirted some drop-offs.  Truly, the sign was correct; this trail was not for horses and bikes!

As we continued on, we started consulting the GPS to see how far we had to go to reach our destination. Once we were within a tenth of a mile from the geocache, the GPS switched over to measure feet rather than miles, and thus the countdown began.  And that was when we realized that we had left the description of the geocache location in the car!

Of course, at that point, it was too late; we were just going to have to find it without it.

So, we had to rely on our memory to find the cache.  One of the main things that we remembered was that there would be a twin saguaro next to a single saguaro along the trail.  They wouldn't be tall saguaros, either; in fact, they were described as being only about 7-8 feet tall. 

We followed the GPS indicators and looked for the saguaros, just hoping that we didn't miss it.  The only indication that we had to our location was that the number of feet to our destination kept decreasing.

Finally, as we came into an exceptionally rocky area of the trail, we found it: the double saguaro!  I guess I had no idea just how obvious it was going to be, especially in an area that was already covered with saguaros; but this saguaro was truly unique and proved to be a good landmark for the cache.

So now, it came down to one question: where was the cache?

According to the GPS, the geocache was located off-trail, in the boulder field below.  Getting down to the boulder field, though, involved some work, so we decided that it would be best for Mary and me to stay on the trail, while John went to look for the geocache himself.

Armed with his GPS, John searched the boulder field for a good fifteen minutes.  He looked in every nook and cranny, in large holes and in small, but he just couldn't seem to find it.  The closest that he could get to the location was about thirty feet. 

Eventually, John gave up.  He just couldn't figure it out.  And it was getting close to 11:00 a.m., which, of course, is Mary's famous melt-down time.  It was time for us to abandon our search for the elusive geocache and start our return hike to the trailhead.

Our hike back to the trailhead was, believe it or not, uneventful.  Eleven o'clock came and went, but Mary's melt-down never came.  Even though we didn't find the treasure, she still had a wonderful time hiking and wasn't ready to give up on us just yet.  It helped, too, that most of the trail was very easy; once we were past the rocky and rough area beyond the warning sign, we were back on the wide, flat trail, where we could hike at a fast clip.

We were running late for lunch, though.  It was past 12:30 before we were done hiking.  As soon as we came to the junction with the Waddell Trail, we had cell signal again, so we called my Dad to let him know that we would be there after 1:00.

When we finally arrived at the trailhead, we climbed into the car and prepared to leave...but not before we looked for the print-out of the geocache location.  That was when we found out that, had we brought this paper along with us, John would have easily found the cache.  The pictures on the print-out didn't just have the location of the cache; there were pictures with arrows pointing to the exact place where the cache was hidden.  John had even looked in there, but apparently, he didn't look well enough!

Next time, I guess we'll find that cache.  Next time...

So with that, we left the White Tanks and started driving towards Laveen for lunch.  Another fun adventure was over...

Return to Naked in the Woods.