February 22-23, 2003

"A Little Horny"

After a number of busy weekends, spent either at home or at the drop zone, John and Mary and I finally went on our first camping trip of the year. We were aching to spend some time in the outdoors again. In January, we aborted two camping trips before we even had a chance to pack (one trip, for instance, was cancelled because John got home at 4:00 a.m. Saturday morning after a major crisis at work). We also had not had much of a chance to day-hike - or even go on long explores in the Jeep - since the beginning of January, so the situation was getting desperate. "That's it!" John said. "We're going camping no matter what this weekend!" He selected our destination from our Arizona recreation map: the Little Horn Mountains, located in between the Kofa Wildlife Refuge and the Eagletail Wilderness Area, just south of Interstate 10. Specifically, he wanted to find Royal Arch, a picture of which he had seen on a web site (http://www.naturalarches.org/gallery-AZroyal.htm). By road or by trail, he was determined to go there. In order to ensure that we would not be stuck at home during the weekend due to unforeseen circumstances, we began preparing for our trip on Wednesday…and on Friday evening, we were completely packed and ready to go. On Saturday morning, then, at 7:00 a.m., the three of us got into the Jeep and embarked on our adventure. Getting there, of course, was half the adventure. Before we could even get out of town, we had to make a couple of stops. First, we had to buy gas and firewood (simple enough). Then, we had to stop at the grocery store to buy sunscreen, because our sunscreen had been misplaced. We searched everywhere for it - both in the Jeep and all over the house - but we just couldn't find it. We were certain that we must have dropped it at the Table Top North trailhead, because that was the last place we had it. After stopping at the store, John decided that he wanted bagels, so we drove across the street to Einstein's for breakfast. (I only had coffee, because I had already eaten breakfast.) John bought himself two Everything bagels and a piece of pound cake for Mary. "Oh, good, it's your turn to put her down for a nap then," I said to John, because, as we all know, pound cake makes Mary hyper! Once we had everything that we needed (or so we thought), we headed out of town, west on I-10. About forty-five minutes later, though, just before we reached the SR 85 interchange, I suddenly realized that we had forgotten something very important. "John," I asked, "did you buy ice at the gas station?" No, he had forgotten it, as did I, so we exited the freeway on SR 85 and turned around. Fortunately, there was a Love's truck stop only a mile east of SR 85, so we went there, bought three bags of ice, then continued once again on our journey. Now that we were certain we had everything, and we didn't have any other excuses to stop, we were able to drive non-stop to Exit 53 - Hovatter Road. As we exited the highway, we turned left onto Hovatter Road and crossed over the bridge. On the other side, the pavement ended…and so did the road, or so it seemed. Just past the bridge, we came to a barricade, which gave the illusion that the road dead-ended there. Hovatter Road, however, continued off to the right, heading west, and we found the road that we needed to take just off to the left, about 100 feet away. We traveled along that primitive road at a good rate of speed for several miles, admiring the beautiful desert surrounding the Little Horn Mountains. Along the way, John pointed out landmarks that he found on the topo map. One of those landmarks was Coyote Peak, where we stopped to take a break from driving. As soon as we pulled off of the road, the three of us got out of the Jeep…and while John and I took a moment to answer the call of nature (it was a long drive, and I did have coffee to drink that morning!), Mary wandered away from us! She wanted to go climb up Coyote Peak and was already halfway there by the time we were finished. John and I chased after her, but instead of bringing her back to the Jeep, we decided to go ahead and climb Coyote Peak…or at least one of the little hills below the peak. Climbing up that little hill was not at hard as it looked, as it wasn't very steep, but it was covered with lots of that loose rock that I love so much. I only made it about halfway up the hill, because I wasn't wearing my hiking boots - I did not want to get stuck up there! John, on the other hand, climbed all the way to the top, with Mary on his shoulders. Although she had wanted to go to the top of the hill, she didn't want to do it on herself. (After all, she is two.) It was a fun experience for her to be up on top of the hill, and as they came down, she proceeded to tell me in a very excited voice that she had been "Up there! On top!" We soon returned to the Jeep so that we could continue on our way to Royal Arch, our destination for the day. According to the topo map that John had printed, there were two ways to get there: the long way and the short way. The long way would take us along a four-wheel drive road and would be several miles. The short way was only a few miles on a four-wheel drive road. We decided that we would take the short way, to minimize the amount to four-wheeling that we would have to do to get there. And, if we couldn't get there by Jeep, we could always walk. John found a two-mile cross-country track that we could follow that would take us all the way to Royal Arch. As you can plainly see, he was determined to get there. On the way to Royal Arch, we began to look for a campsite - a little place with some trees for shade, not too far off of the road, preferably close to Royal Arch. We found a few nice spots along the way - places that we would keep in mind, if we didn't find anything up the road - but we could not find the road to Royal Arch! The problem was that, although John had printed up a topo map of the area, it was not very detailed, meaning that he could not pinpoint the exact coordinates of the road. He estimated the location based on its latitude and longitude on the map, but when we got there, there was no road. After searching for some time, we gave up and decided to take the longer, more difficult route to Royal Arch - and, along the way, we hoped to find a place to camp, too. We backtracked about five miles up the road and turned onto a well-marked side road, which would take us to the arch. The road to Royal Arch was not very rough, but it did have its ups and downs…literally. Every few feet or so, there was a "speed bump" that kept us from getting up to speed. (John and I were both thinking, "This is going to take forever!") Additionally, there weren't any places to camp in that cholla-choked desert; most of the landscape was too rough for camping, or it was very stark, devoid of all vegetation. Our prospects were not looking good, but we kept searching anyway. Soon, we had to stop looking for campsites and start searching for the road - it had disappeared entirely! After several miles, we found ourselves following very faint tracks in the dirt that led us to a barbed wire fence. There, the tracks stopped, forcing us to turn around. John stopped the Jeep along the fence line and got out to look for a gate, though which we could pass to continue towards our destination. Minutes later, he returned to the car, stating, "You can't get there from here!" But that didn't stop John Verley! Oh, no! He knew that he had lost the road somewhere along the way, and now he was determined to find it. We started to backtrack to the last place we had seen the "real" road…and along the way, we got lost again! The problem was that there were so many tire tracks in the dirt, we didn't know which ones to take! The tracks led us around in circles for several minutes until finally, we found the road! Once we were back on the main line, it didn’t take us long to find the gate, through which we would pass to get to Royal Arch. After we drove past the gate, we continued on our way, over one speed bump after another. We also continued our search for a campsite, hoping that we would find something before the road became too rough - we certainly didn't want to do any four-wheeling with all of our camping gear in the car! It didn't take long before the speed bumps and the slow pace of our travel got to us. We had wasted a lot of time getting lost - and at the rate we were going, we would probably get there at dinnertime! "Let's turn around," John suggested. "I don't want to do this." I agreed. Now that we knew the route, we managed to stay on the road, without getting lost, all the way back to the main road. From there, we took a left turn and resumed our search for a place to camp. We found our perfect campsite a couple of miles down the road, at a wide-open area next to a wash - it was only about fifty feet from the road, but it was surrounded by enough trees that we would have a lot of privacy. (Of course, it wasn't like there was a whole lot of traffic flowing through there anyway!) We also had plenty of shade from the palo verde trees and plenty of room for Mary to play. "We'll take it!" I said, and with that, John and I began to set up camp. One of the first things that we unloaded from the Jeep was Mary's potty chair. Yes, folks, we have now entered the fabulous stage of parenthood where Mary is learning how to use the potty. We had decided to bring it along, even though we had a feeling that she might not use it at all. However, as soon as we pulled it out of the Jeep, Mary immediately pulled down her pants and sat down on it. (John made sure to videotape her, stating that this would be footage for her first boyfriend…what a father!) Another item that we brought along to use was our backcountry tent, in addition to our large 9'X8" tent. John had the brilliant idea of giving Mary her own little place to play and sleep, now that she was a big girl, and the backcountry tent was the perfect way to do it, because it was just big enough for her and all of her toys. As soon as John had it set up, he explained to Mary that that was her tent, where she could go and play with her toys and sleep in her sleeping bag. Mary was so excited about having her own little place that she began to pile all of her toys into it - even her folding chair and her potty! But the big question was, would she actually sleep in there overnight? That remained to be seen… As soon as we had our campsite set up and we had eaten lunch, John announced that he was going for a short hike - he wanted to scramble up one of the hills surrounding our campsite. "Okay, bye!" I said, sending him on his way. While he was gone - and while Mary played quietly in her tent - I had a chance to enjoy the warm, peaceful afternoon by doing a little bit of my homework. John returned a half an hour later and reported on his findings on the top of the hill. He stated that there wasn't much up there - just a forest of cholla cactus - but he did see a side-road that he thought we should take. It appeared to be the road that we had been looking for all morning long: the road to Royal Arch! So the three of us climbed into the Jeep and took off to find the road. It turned out to be the right road after all! Almost immediately after we began following it, we found Royal Arch, a natural arch cut into the rocks on top of the mountain. (The Eagletail and Little Horn Mountains were littered with these little arches and windows, some of which were visible to the naked eye, from the desert floor.) Though it was still some distance away, we were at least heading right towards it! Or so we thought. Once again, we lost the road, and this time, we just couldn't seem to find it, no matter how hard we tried. Instead of giving up, though, John suggested that we get out and walk. He parked the Jeep on a stark flat area next to a wash, and from there, we started hiking towards Royal Arch. Of course, I forgot to change my shoes; I was still wearing my sneakers, not my hiking boots. D'oh! For that reason - and because we didn't have any water with us - we decided not to go very far. Instead, we hiked to the first hill, about a quarter of a mile from the Jeep. Once there, we climbed to the top of it to get a better view of the arch, as well as the vast desert surrounding us. The landscape of the Little Horn Mountains was not much different from that of Sundad and Hyder - acre upon acre of stark, barren desert, littered with black lava rocks, both large and small, interspersed with acres of cholla forests and little washes that were carved throughout the land, where the palo verde and mesquite trees grew. Since it was nearly springtime, there were a few wildflowers and some sprouts of green grass along the desert floor, thanks to the rains of early February. It was not enough to break the four-year drought, but just enough to give us that lovely display of foliage. While we enjoyed the scenery around us, Mary enjoyed the rocks. On top of the hill, we found a large pile of black lava rocks, where Mary decided to practice scrambling like Daddy. Using her hands and her feet, she climbed up to the top and then tried to stand up while balanced on two uneven rocks. "She is her Daddy's child," I said to John. After taking a few pictures of the scenery, as well as a family picture, we decided that it was time to hike back to the Jeep. Then, from there, we went on a long explore, just to pass the time away. First, we made another attempt to find the correct road to Royal Arch, but to no avail. Next, upon returning to the main road, we went looking for another side road to follow. We found one about a mile past our campsite. John looked on the map and determined that it was probably one of the roads that went into the Kofa Wildlife Refuge, so he turned onto it to see if that was true. Along the way, we passed by a mine, just off to the right on a side road. We also passed through several washes…just before the road began to loop back towards the main road, depositing us only a quarter of a mile south of our entry point. By the time we finished our exploration, Mary was asleep in her car seat, so we decided to head back to camp, where she could finish her nap. While she slept in the car, John and I relaxed under the shade tree and enjoyed the warm afternoon sun. Later that day, after Mary was awake, John decided to go scramble up another hill, to get a little bit of exercise before dinnertime. On top of this hill, he discovered an arch, as well as several small windows in the rocks. He stayed up there for a long time, exploring the various rock formations; then, around 5:00 p.m., he returned to camp to report his findings. After dinner that evening, the three of us sat around the campfire and relaxed until it was time to go to bed. At 8:00 p.m., John put Mary to bed in her little tent - he tucked her into her sleeping bag, and within five minutes, she was sound asleep! An hour later, we, too, crawled into our tent and fell asleep. Neither John nor me slept all night long. I woke up several times to shift positions and to listen for Mary, in case she awoke in a panic. In the wee hours of the morning, we were both tossing and turning, so that was when we decided to get out of bed and start the day. Mary, however, was still sound asleep in her little tent. She had made it through the whole night by herself! She awoke around 6:30, just before the sun began to rise. As she emerged from the tent, we praised her for spending the whole night in her tent - "What a big girl you are!" we told her. We could tell that she was proud of herself, too, because she chattered over and over again about sleeping in the tent. After breakfast that morning - and after we all got dressed - John and Mary and I decided to go for a walk. What we did was, we picked one of the distant hills, about a half of a mile from our campsite, and hiked to it. Then, we scrambled to the top of it. Fortunately, it wasn't much of a scramble - the slopes were not that steep - so we made it to the top without any difficulty at all. Once at the top, Mary and John sat down and began to hurl lava rocks - that, of course, is one of Mary's favorite games. They spent about a half an hour chucking rocks over the side, while I took pictures of them. Then, once they were tired of that, we started hiking back towards camp. We took our time tearing down our campsite that morning, since we didn't have any place to be at a certain time, and it was still early in the day. While we did that, we also discussed our plan for the day. John thought it might be fun to take a more scenic route, one that would take us through the Kofa Wildlife Refuge and onto SR 95. It would involve about thirty miles of driving on a dirt road - in other words, a typical Verley adventure! We left our camp around 9:00 a.m. and headed back up the road towards Coyote Peak. From there, we continued on for another mile, until we came to the main road through the wildlife refuge - Pipeline Road, which is nestled between the New Water and the Kofa Mountains. We turned left there and began our thirty-mile drive through the beautiful wildlife area. The entire drive took us just over an hour, and the road led us through some interesting landscape changes. As we first entered the wildlife refuge, we drove through a desert in bloom, with green grass and wildflowers sprouting all along the desert floor, and bright green leaves growing on every mesquite tree and ocotillo branch. In some areas, the grass was tall and lush - so lush that you would have thought that the drought had, at long last, been broken. Throughout this area, there were many, many washes, through which you had to proceed with caution…or so I learned the hard way. I sped through one wash at about thirty miles an hour and hit a bump that jolted all of us. The camp table came flying out of the back of the Jeep and nearly hit Mary in the head, and the glass on the lantern shattered. Oops! While passing through this area, we took a little side road to see Kofa Cabin, located a mile off of Pipeline Road. We weren't sure what we were going to find, but it sounded like an interesting side trip. What we found was a wide-open field, devoid of vegetation, in which there was a cabin, stuck right in the middle. The cabin, which was made of stone, was locked up tight, so we didn't even bother to get out of the car to look at it. Having seen it, we took the side road back to Pipeline Road and continued on our way. We soon left the lush desert behind and came to an area that was dry and dusty and covered with black lava rocks. It was very stark and desolate, much like Sundad. Here, the road became a little more rugged and narrow, and there were many wash crossings that required us to slow down our speed quite a bit. As we drew closer to SR 95, the landscape changed again. We were in vegetation once more, but the desert foliage wasn't nearly as green as it had been during the earlier part of our journey. The road, however, improved slightly, which allowed us to speed up to about forty miles an hour. A few miles from the highway, we began to see the first signs of "civilization" - acres upon acres of motor homes and other types of RV's, all camped out in the desert outside of Quartzite. There were many campgrounds along SR 95, where all of the winter visitors were camped for the season. There were so many of them that they were like little towns in the desert. The town of Quartzite, too, was flooded with winter visitors - it is one of the most popular spots for winter visitors in Arizona. All along the streets of town, there are vendors selling arts and crafts, quartz and other rocks, and T-shirts, and they were crowded with winter visitors, who came to buy their wares. The truck stops and gas stations were jam-packed with them, too; when we stopped for lunch at Subway, we waited in a very long line. It was quite a culture shock to be in the middle of such activity, having just come from the solitude of the Little Horn Mountains. After we ate our sub sandwiches and filled our gas tank, it was time for us to head home. From Quartzite, we took I-10 east towards Phoenix - a two-hour drive that was spent looking for "Punch Buggies" and listening to the news on the radio. We finally arrived at home around 3:00 p.m., and after unloading the Jeep, we relaxed for the rest of the afternoon.

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