It had been a long time since we had been able to go on a good hike, because we had been incredibly busy.  Throughout the entire month of April, and even into Mary, we had been traveling for one reason or another.  During the first weekend of April, John went with his skydiving team, Tornado, to Perris, CA, to do some time in the Skyventure wind tunnel.  Then, just after Easter, we went to Myrtle Beach, SC, for Grandpa John Chakowski's 90th birthday party.  Just days after we got home, John had to fly out again, this time to Atlanta, GA, to attend a conference for work.  The day after he returned, we went to Rocky Point for the annual skydiving boogie.  The very next weekend, I went to Las Vegas with my girlfriends, to celebrate our 20th Anniversary as a group.

Now, it was time for a break, because sometimes you just need a vacation from the vacation.

Since we finally had nothing planned, we decided to take a day to go hiking.  John suggested that we take a drive up to Mingus Mountain so that we could do the Woodchute Trail #102, an easy trail that we had done once before (though we were much too "distracted" to actually finish the trail).  It would be a good trail for Mary to hike, as it was very easy, and we could get out of the house and take a break from the insanity of our lives for a few hours.

To get there, we decided to take the scenic route, rather than the obvious one (I-17 to Prescott, or 260 through Cottonwood).  Instead, we took US 60 through Wickenburg, then jumped onto SR 89 to Prescott.  From there, we continued north on SR 89A and drove through the Mingus Mountains, to the Potato Patch Campground.

The last time that we hiked Woodchute, we parked at the toilet and walked the road up to the trailhead, because we didn't know any better.  This time, we knew that we could drive all the way to the trailhead, which was at the Woodchute Wilderness boundary.  Even though we had decided to take my low-clearance Dodge Intrepid, rather than the Jeep, we still made it to the trailhead without a problem.

Our hike began around 10:00 that morning, after sharing our traditional trail kisses.  As we stepped onto the trail, we entered the Woodchute Wilderness Area - a new wilderness area for Mary.  Equipped with her Wiggles Safari hat and her Camelbak Skeeter backpack, Little Hiker Mary led the way up the trail, excited to be hiking.

In order to make our hikes interesting for Mary, John and I often think of games to play along the way.  Today's game involved looking for flowers of different colors.  Although the springtime had been very dry, there were still a few wildflowers along the trail for Mary to find.  First of all, we asked her to find yellow flowers, and she found those immediately.  Then, we asked her to find red flowers.  It took a while, but we soon found reddish purple blooms on a small cactus plant atop a rock.  After that, it was orange...and those were the hardest to find.  Mary started getting frustrated after a while, so we soon had to give up on that game.

At least the trail was easy to hike. With only a slight elevation change, the Woodchute Trail was indeed easy enough for Mary to hike, and she did so with only minimal complaints. 

Although the trail is easy and pretty, there is one thing that takes away from the wilderness experience: the road noise from SR 89A.  The trail parallels SR 89A, and through most of the first two miles of the hike, you can hear all of the noise of cars and motorcycles passing through the Mingus Mountains.  I seemed to notice it more that afternoon than I had the first time I had been there, probably because I was so distracted on that lovely afternoon in July 1999.

And since we weren't so "distracted" this time, we actually hiked further along the trail - probably one mile further than the last time.  We might have gone further, too, if Mary hadn't fallen down and skinned her knee.

It happened about a mile and a half into the trail; we were just about to take a break after reaching the top of a small uphill stretch, when Mary slipped and fell face first onto the trail.  Upon helping her back onto her feet, we noticed that Mary's leg was bleeding; the blood ran all the way from her wounded knee to her sock.  John sat her down on a rock and cleaned her up, only to discover that it was only a small scrape - she was going to be just fine.  (But from the tears that she shed, you wouldn't know it!)

We took a short break before continuing on...but once Mary had taken that fall, we knew that she wasn't going last much longer.  We only managed another quarter of a mile (or less) before we called it quits.

We stopped to take our lunch break at a beautiful overlook, a few feet off of the trail.  While we ate our sandwiches, we sat and admired the lovely mountains that stretched out before us. Despite the road noise, which was less prevalent from that vantage point, it was quite peaceful there.

That overlook became our turnaround point; now, it was time to get Mary back to the car so that she could take a nap.  After packing up the remains of our lunch, we put our Camelbaks back on and started back down the trail.

Once Mary becomes tired, she begins to drag, and that was exactly what she did that afternoon.  A few times, when we couldn't find anything else to distract her, she dragged her feet and whined that she was too tired to walk.  Several times, John carried her on his shoulders, and whenever he did that, we hiked as fast as we could to make up for lost time.  That plan worked well, and as a result, it only took us an hour to return to the trailhead.

With Mary back in her car seat, it was only a matter of time before she was asleep; she didn't even make it to Jerome before she was snoozing away.  This gave John and me a little bit of quiet time so that we could explore the backroads and side streets within the town of Jerome. 

One of the side streets that we took was a particularly interesting one; it took us up into a residential area that was high up on the mountain, on a narrow, dirt road.  From there, we could see the tops of the old buildings below.  After about a half of a mile, the road left the residential area and intersected with the road leading to the famous Jerome Grand Hotel, which is the large hotel on top of the hill, overlooking the town. 

As we left Jerome that afternoon, we continued along SR 89A and soon descended from the Mingus Mountains into Clarkdale and Cottonwood.  From there, we took 260 into Camp Verde, where we merged onto the I-17 going southbound into Phoenix. 

Although we didn't have a big adventure, it was good to get away from the insanity, even if it was just for a couple of hours.  And that was good enough for me...

Return to Naked in the Woods.