Immediately following John's business trip to Fargo, ND came our next adventure, which had been in the works for months. As a special Mother's Day present for me and for his mother, John decided that he was going to take us all backpacking into Fossil Springs, which is one of the most beautiful wilderness areas in Arizona. Having been there twice before, I was really looking forward to going there, as Fossil Springs was one of my favorite places to visit in Arizona.

The Fossil Springs Wilderness Area is one of the most beautiful spots in Arizona. It is very popular among day hikers and backpackers alike, because the destination is incredible. The springs, which feed into Fossil Creek, pump out 100,000 gallons of warm water a minute. Year round, the water in the creek and swimming holes is seventy-two degrees, which makes it a popular spot for swimming, even in the spring and fall.

Fossil Creek has been used for years to power the Irving Power Plant, near Strawberry, AZ. A flume was constructed sometime after the turn of the century (the twentieth century, that is) to transport water to the power plant. One of the three trails leading to Fossil Springs, the Flume Road Trail, is an actual road that is used by APS to maintain the flume. There are two other trails that go into the wilderness area: the Fossil Springs Trail #108, which we have done before, and the Mail Trail, which we have not.

When John first suggested that we go to Fossil Springs for Mother's Day, he thought it might be interesting to take the Mail Trail, so that we could say that we had done all three trails in the wilderness area. The Mail Trail would be a little more difficult than the Flume Road Trail, but he didn't think that we would have a problem with it. I said, "Sure, why not!" and left it at that.

Janice and Danny then announced that they were planning to camp, with Joshua, overnight on the Mogollon Rim that weekend. John suggested that they join us at Fossil Springs by day-hiking the Flume Road Trail, which neither of them had ever done before. He managed to talk them into it, stating that they would love the swimming hole, and the hike was easy enough that Janice could do it, even with her bad knee. Although they cancelled their camping trip last minute, they still agreed to join us at Fossil Springs.

Although John had done most of the planning for the trip prior to his business trip, he left out one minor detail: how were we going to get to the Mail Trail? John had been planning for us to take the van there, but he had not said anything about it. When I talked it over with Bill and Erika, they both agreed with me that we would all be cramped if we tried to take the van all the way there, so they suggested that we take the motor home. I thought that it was a good idea, except that we didn't know what the road conditions were like. In the end, we decided to take the motor home anyway, and if the road was really bad, we could always go to the Irving Trailhead and hike the Flume Road.

So, at 6:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, May 12, the Verleys' motor home arrived at our house. After installing Mary's car seat and loading our backpacks into the RV, the five of us started towards the Mogollon Rim. En route, we called Janice and Danny to let them know that we were on our way; they were just getting ready to go, and they said that they would meet us at Fossil Springs.

To get to the Mail Trailhead, we took SR 87 north towards Payson. As we passed through Sunflower, we noticed that the new section of the highway was finally opened, though only two lanes of the four-lane highway were being used. We assumed that the other two lanes would be opened soon. After passing through Payson, Pine and Strawberry, we climbed onto the Mogollon Rim and then turned left onto SR 260 West, which goes towards Cottonwood. From there, we drove several miles until we came to FR 9247B, on the left. As we passed over the cattle guard, we rolled onto a very rutted and rocky dirt road, which we would have had to follow for three miles.

We made it about a quarter of a mile down the road before we decided to give up. There was no way the motor home would have made it on that road. So, we turned around and went back to SR 260 - the Mail Trail would have to wait for another day.

Our back-up plan, of course, was to hike the Flume Road Trail, which is much more easily accessible in a motor home. After returning to Strawberry, we turned onto Fossil Creek Road, which is a good dirt road as it becomes FR 708. Eight miles later, around 9:30 a.m. or so, we arrived at the Irving Trailhead.

As we pulled into the parking lot, we discovered that Janice and Danny, along with Joshua and Sheba, had just arrived and were preparing to hike. Bill parked the motor home along side of their truck, and the five of us got ready to hike as well - the eight of us would hike in together, as one big group. At 10:00 a.m., once we were all set to go, we began hiking the Flume Road Trail.

I guess I had forgotten what a groaner the first half-mile of the trail was. Of course, the last time I had hiked it was in November 1999, when John and I had hiked there with Debbie Hannum and Brian Brown, and we were carrying daypacks. With a backpack on, that first half-mile is much more difficult, and it really took a lot out of us - especially Erika, who became overheated and nauseous before we reached the top. We stopped and took a break there so that she could get her bearings before continuing along the trail.

The rest of the hike, however, is much easier, as it follows the Flume Road - and, yes, the flume - for about three miles, until it ends up at the Fossil Creek dam. When we first came to the flume, less than a mile from the trailhead, we all stopped there to wet our hats in hopes that it would cool us down. Erika especially needed the cool water on her head, because she had not completely recovered from the strenuous hike uphill.

The next hour was a pleasant one, as the eight of us hiked at a good pace - not too fast, not too slow - towards the wilderness area. Mary was entertaining the masses with a steady stream of babbling, and Joshua slept for the most part. The rest of us passed the time away by chatting, which really made the hike seem to go faster. Along the way, I also stopped periodically to take digital pictures of the trail so that we could add them to our web site.

Sometime between 11:30 and 12:00, I had gotten a good burst of energy and found myself hiking at a good clip, ahead of the group. Danny, who was carrying Joshua in the Snugli, was hiking with me, and when we realized that we were getting too far ahead of the group, we stopped under the shade of the flume to wait for the others to catch up. We could see them at the top of the hill - they were stopped there. Suddenly, I could hear Mary screaming her lungs out - she had just fallen asleep not too long before that, so she should not have been crying like that. "What's going on?" I shouted to John, who was standing on a plank next to the flume.

"Dad fell!" he shouted back to me. I needed no further explanations; I hiked back up the hill to see what had happened. When I arrived, the situation had already been resolved, so all that was left to do was explain to me what had happened. Bill had tried to walk on the plank to get to the flume, so that he could wet Erika's hat, but he slipped on the gravel and fell. As he started to topple down the side of the cliff, he grabbed onto the planks and held on for dear life while John came out to rescue him. Of course, John had not bothered to drop his backpack, so when he bent over to try to help his father up, Mary ended up upside-down, which she did not like at all! Bill told him to take off his backpack, which he did; then, he helped pull his father to safety.

Aside from a few deep cuts that bled profusely for a few minutes and a bruise on the chest, Bill was not hurt badly by the fall. His fall had been broken by a prickly pear cactus, which had also managed to puncture his water bladder after scratching up his legs. After a few moments to assess the damage and clean up the blood, he was ready to hike again.

Erika, however, was worse off than Bill. Up to that point, she had been fighting heat exhaustion, and when Bill had his brush with death, that pushed her over the edge. We were a mile from the end of the trail, and she was unable to go on. After getting her into the shade, where Danny was still waiting with Joshua, we insisted that she drink lots of water - she had not been drinking enough - and that she rest for a while before we continued.

Sometime later, we determined that she was not going to make it there with a full backpack, so Danny volunteered to carry her pack for her. Bill then told the rest of us to go ahead, so that we could get the babies out of the sun; he and Erika would meet us at camp. Although John was reluctant to go, he went ahead anyway, but said that he would go back for them as soon as we found a campsite.

Around 12:45 p.m., we reached the dam, and a few moments later, we arrived at Fossil Springs. After choosing a suitable campsite near the water, we dropped our gear and rested for a few minutes. Then, John took the bladder out of his backpack, filled it with the rest of my water, and left to go find his parents. Danny volunteered to go with him, but John insisted that he stay at camp so that he could enjoy the springs, since he and Janice were only going to be there during the afternoon.

Once John was gone, I picked up Mary and led Janice and Danny to Fossil Creek, which was located just beyond the trees, next to our campsite. Although the swimming hole was crowded with day-hikers, it was still as beautiful as it had always been, with one exception: the rope swing, which John had used to play Tarzan during our first two visits, was gone! Oh, the tragedy! "Daddy is going to be so sad!" I said to Mary.

I only lingered by the water for about ten minutes before I decided to return to camp and wait for the others to arrive. In the meantime, I would also put Mary into her swimsuit and a Little Swimmers diaper, so that John could take her for a swim after he returned. Fortunately, I didn't have to wait long; moments later, John, Bill, and Erika arrived at camp.

While I changed Mary and fed her lunch, Erika took a few moments to rest and to drink lots of water. A few minutes later, Janice and Danny and Joshua returned from the creek, and we all had lunch together. Once we were finished, we all went back down to the creek to enjoy the swimming hole.

Although Fossil Creek is a warm spring, it was still a bit cold at first dip. Of course, once we got used to it, it was just perfect. All of us, except for Joshua, had the chance to get wet that afternoon. Mary got to take a little swim, too, even though we weren't allowed to get water in her ears (she had just had tubes put in her ears on May 4). John took her into the water and held onto her as he walked into the swimming hole. Eventually, the water was over his head, but he still managed to keep Mary's ears out of the water by holding her up above him as he went under.

Eventually, it was time for Danny and Janice and Joshua to leave us. It was getting late in the afternoon, and they still had a four-mile hike ahead of them - it would be almost five o'clock by the time they finished hiking. Bill offered to let them spend the night in the motor home, and they took him up on it so that they wouldn't have to drive all the way back to Phoenix after the hike. Instead, they could get a good night's sleep then drive back early in the morning.

We put the babies down together on the tarp so that Janice and Danny could change out of their bathing suits. Mary played with Joshua for a little while - and, of course, everyone started taking pictures of the two of them together. Then, Danny put Joshua back in the Snugli as they started to say their good-byes.

And that was when we noticed that Mary's Little Swimmer's diaper had leaked, and there was poop running down her leg! The diapers were supposed to fit a baby up to twenty-four pounds, but Mary was already twenty-one pounds, so she was pushing the limit on them.

So we had a Chinese fire drill to clean Mary up. We stripped her down and wiped her clean with wet wipes. Then, while John washed off her clothes and the towel on which she had been sitting, I put a regular diaper and some dry clothes on her. Janice was kind enough to pack the poopy diaper out for us (what a relief for me!). Once Mary was clean and happy, Janice and Danny and Joshua left our camp and started their hike.

By the time that incident was over, we were all ready for a drink. Fortunately, Bill remembered the Scotch, and Erika had brought crackers, cheese and sausage for happy hour. The five of us gathered on the tarp and relaxed with our cups of Scotch and water as the afternoon rolled on.

Late in the afternoon, a group of backpackers settled into the campsite next to ours. There were two women, their boys, and their dogs; they, too, were doing a Mother's Day backpack. They came over to our campsite and chatted with us for a while before heading to the water to do a little swimming. A little while later, we decided to join them for one last swim before calling it a day.

We had one of the women take a picture of our group sitting in the rapids of Fossil Creek - oh, was that a wild experience! John had seen someone sitting in the rapids earlier that day, so he decided to give it a try. It turns out that there is a sort of bench there, over which the water flows. Sitting in the rapids, it sort of feels like you are in a souped-up Jacuzzi, and it was wonderful on my sore back!

After that one last dip, we decided that it was time to dry off and get ready for dinner. We returned from the creek and changed into our dry clothes, and we put our wet clothes on an old log that was propped up against a tree. I put my sports bra there, too, in hopes that it would dry by morning, because it was the only one that I had with me.

As John cooked our dinner that evening, I tried to feed Mary her dinner, but she did not want to eat. I managed to get her to take a half of a jar of carrots and beef before she started fussing. At that point, I gave up and handed her a bottle. She lay down and drank her formula until she fell asleep - she must have been tired, I thought. While she slept, John and I ate our dinner and our dessert as we watched clouds gather overhead.

Now, we had heard on the radio that there were thunderstorms in the forecast for the high country but that these storms would not produce much rain. We also knew that it was much too early for monsoon season, since it was only May and the conditions were not quite right. (In order for monsoon season to start, the dew point has to be above fifty for several days in a row.) However, those clouds looked too much like monsoon clouds. They were huge, gray thunderheads that were quickly moving overhead, looking as though they would open up and dump rain on us at any moment. Eventually, we could also hear the low rumbling of thunder in the distance, telling us that it was time to cover up our gear before the storm hit.

So that is what we did. As soon as I felt the first raindrop fall from the sky, I picked up sleeping Mary and put her into our tent. Then, we gathered up our gear and threw everything (including our wet clothes) either under the tube tent or under the tarp. Soon, the wind picked up, so we had to hold the tarps down with rocks. With everything safely protected from the rain, I crawled into the tent beside Mary and waited for the storm to hit. John and Bill waited for it outside and watched it as it began to play out.

Over the next hour, the storm gradually made its way over us. Bright flashes of lightning lit up the dull, gray evening sky, followed almost immediately by loud claps of thunder reverberating through the canyon. Eventually, the rain began to fall, lightly at first, then pounding on the rain fly of the tent. At that point, John crawled into our tent, and Bill into his own, to wait out the storm.

Unlike a monsoon storm, which is quick and furious, this thunderstorm lingered over us all evening long. By eight o'clock that night, we decided that there was nothing else to do but to go to sleep. Naturally, that also meant that we were going to have to change our sleeping arrangements. Normally, John sleeps outside, and Mary and I sleep in the tent, because it is not big enough for the three of us. We managed to arrange our sleeping bags and Mary in such a way that we were all able to fit. John would sleep next to the door, and I would sleep next to the window, with Mary above my head. Unfortunately, we discovered that the tent was on an incline, but at that point, there was nothing that we could do about it. We would just have to deal with it.

Once we had finished with the sleeping arrangements, we changed Mary's diaper and put her into a sleeper and a bunting. Then, we fed her a bottle of formula, which she sucked down greedily, fussing as she did so. When I tried to take it away from her, she cried, so we gave it back to her. Soon, she didn't want it anymore, but she continued to fuss as though she still did. When we put her down on her blanket, she began to cry and cough - she just wasn't going to sleep! I picked her up again, and as soon as I did so, she threw up all over the tent, and she continued to do so until she had successfully emptied her stomach, at which point she immediately fell asleep in my arms.

We were very lucky that it had been projectile vomit, because Mary managed to keep her bunting and her sleeper dry. However, she had completely saturated my Thermarest and the floor of the tent. On top of that, some of it had spattered on the stuff sacks at the foot of the tent and on my sleeping bag. John acted fast to clean up the mess that she had made; he immediately unzipped the tent and threw the Thermarest out into the rain. Then, he crawled outside and grabbed some wet clothes to sop up the vomit. Unfortunately, he grabbed my sports bra, and before I could stop him, he had used it to wipe up the mess!

Having cleaned up as much as we could, John and I returned to our sleeping bags and tried to go to sleep. Despite having to sleep on the hard ground - and despite the odor inside our tent - we both managed to fall asleep soon thereafter.

Neither one of us slept very well that night. Mary awoke several times, not out of hunger, but because she kept rolling from her side, where she prefers to sleep, to her belly. This was due to the fact that we were on an incline; every time Mary went from her back to her side, she ended up rolling all the way over to her belly. Each time she rolled, she would kick me in the head, waking me up. Then, when she couldn't get back over (because the bunting was a little too confining), she would fuss until one of us picked her up and put her back on her back. This took place several times during the night.

Around one a.m., while it was still raining outside, I awoke to answer the call of nature. As I emerged from the tent, I rubbed my eyes to try to see where I was going, and I ended up losing one of my disposable contact lenses. Now, fortunately, I am not completely blind and I can function to an extent without corrective lenses, but it was going to be a pain to do so.

Sometime during the night, the rain finally stopped, leaving the world outside a muddy mess - everything was wet and muddy! ("Good thing we didn't take FR 9247B," I said to John.) At five-thirty a.m., when we finally decided to give up on sleep, we arose and stepped out into the mud to begin our morning. While Mary continued to sleep, the rest of us had breakfast and coffee while we tried to come to our senses. John told his parents about the events that had taken place in our tent during the night (gee, I remember the days when those "events" involved sex), and we all decided that it would be best to get an early start hiking out of there that morning.

Mary awoke at 6:00 a.m., and after she was changed and fed, we started to tear down camp in hopes that we could start hiking by 8:00 a.m. Having packed all of my stuff sacks, I sat down and waited for John to finish packing so that he could remove all of his gear from the tube tent. Mary wanted attention anyway, so I picked her up and put her on my lap...only to discover that her diaper had leaked again! Oh, this was not happening! I had had more poop and puke than I had ever wanted to see in one weekend...and it was all my Mother's Day present!

John made me go take a walk while he cleaned up the mess that Mary had made. Then, he came looking for me so that we could go finish packing up camp.

Despite the minor setback, we were ready to go by 8:15 a.m., while the morning was still cool. John reminded us that, even though it was cool outside, we still needed to make sure that we were drinking our water, because we needed to stay hydrated before it began to heat up outside.

Our hike that day was, for the most part, uneventful. The only injuries we sustained that day were bites from mosquitoes and other no-see-ums - they were out in full force that morning, since it had rained most of the night. No one fell, and no one got heat exhaustion.

About halfway out, we saw an APS truck driving along the Flume Road, and at the same time, we saw an APS worker walking along the top of the flume. Later, while we were hiking next to the flume, we discovered that it was empty: the flume had been turned off! We supposed that APS was doing some sort of maintenance on it. As we came to the last bridge, just before the end of the trail, we found that the water was gushing down the side of the hill. "This must be the overflow," John indicated. He explained that the last time we had hiked there (November 1999), there was merely a trickle on the way in, but as we came out, the water was gushing, much like it was now. He guessed that they probably did maintenance on the flume on Sundays and that, when they turn off the flume, the water has to go somewhere, so it gushes down the overflow.

And just where does THAT water go? Obviously that water has to go somewhere, too. As we made our way down the hill, we could hear the water rushing through the creek at the bottom, the same creek that we would have to cross to get back to the trailhead. On Saturday, the creek was ankle deep; now, it was thigh deep and flowing fast!

At that point, it just didn't matter anymore. We were so close to the end that it didn't matter how wet we got, because the boots were coming off soon anyway. We waded across the creek without a problem, and moments later, we were finally at the motor home! As soon as we had our boots off, we went inside and relaxed with ice cold beers.

There was a note from Janice and Danny inside the motor home. They indicated that they had finished the hike in two hours and fifteen minutes - "not bad for a gimp". We had also finished the hike in two hours and fifteen minutes, leaving John to remark, "Not bad for four old people with backpacks!"

It turns out that Janice and Danny had another incident on the way back to the trailhead. Danny, who had been carrying Joshua in the Snugli, went to the flume to get some water for Sheba. However, he slipped on some loose dirt and slid down the slope under the flume. Joshua hit his head on the underside of the flume; he had a small cut on his head, and they spent quite some time getting him calmed down after that.

Having successfully completed our hike, it was time to have a Mother's Day lunch. Erika chose Famous Sam's in Payson, so as soon as our equipment was loaded, we left the trailhead and drove towards town. While at the restaurant, we put Mary in a booster seat and tried to distract her with Cheerios to keep her from playing with everything else on the table. Although she did manage get a few of them in her mouth, she sent the rest of them flying across the table or onto the floor under our booth. Then, just before leaving, Mary grabbed a hold of a glass that was within her reach, and suddenly I had a lap full of cold water! Check, please!

On the way home, John and I started to feel very tired. We tried to take a nap in the motor home, but we found that we could not sleep. When we got home, we tried again, but Mary would not let us snooze, because she was too playful and loud. Later that afternoon, we were all sick - we all had the stomach flu. The three of us took turns throwing up for most of the evening. The rest of our group eventually came down with it, too, during the next week. It was quite the miserable Mother's Day gift.

However, despite all that happened to us during that trip, I will say that I had a memorable first Mother's Day - it is definitely one that I will never forget. I enjoyed spending time at Fossil Springs and hiking on the Flume Road, but most of all, I enjoyed it all with my beautiful, happy daughter.

Return to Naked in the Woods.