"Houston Brothers & Sisters & Other Relations"

During the week following our luxury backpacking adventure on the Houston Brothers Trail, Erika Verley sent out an e-mail to invite all of us - including the Guckenburgs - on a family camping trip to Aspen Springs. She described it as a beautiful area that would be perfect for a family outing. It wasn't long before the responses came in and a date was set for the trip. We all picked May 31-June 1 as the weekend for our camping trip - mainly because it would take place the day after Erika's birthday. (That would be a nice way to celebrate her special day.) That date worked out perfectly for us, as it would take place after Memorial Day weekend. John had been invited to participate in the Arizona Challenge again at Skydive Arizona, and as long as he keeps getting invited every year, that is how we will spend that holiday weekend. After we set the date for the trip, John sent out an e-mail containing directions to Aspen Spring, as well as a topo map indicating which roads to take. We all agreed that we would camp in the meadow next to the hay barn and that we would meet on Saturday morning, bright and early. Janice and Danny, however, announced that they would be heading up there on Friday, rather than Saturday, because neither one of them had to work on Fridays. "Oh, great!" John said jokingly. "I guess we'll have to look for them when we get there!" (After all, they would be the first ones there, and they had never been there before. The rest of us had it marked on our GPS's!) We spent Friday evening preparing for our adventure, making sure that we had all of our gear packed and all of the supplies that we would need, including graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows for making S'mores. Now that Mary and Joshua were getting older, it was time for us to introduce to them the finer points of camping out, and that meant learning how to roast marshmallows over an open campfire. With all of our gear packed and loaded in the Jeep, the three of us - John, Mary and I - left the house at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday morning. Since we were leaving so late in the morning, we knew that we were going to be the last ones there; Bill and Erika had called us about forty minutes before we left to let us know that they were already on the road. Despite our late departure, though, we still took our time getting there, in order to stop as often as possible for potty breaks. We stopped first at the Texaco in Fountain Hills, where we bought snacks and used the facilities. Then, we stopped at the McDonalds in Payson, where I ran into two co-workers from Bank One - John Blessington and Matt Krause. The two of them were also on their way to the Mogollon Rim to do a little day hiking. We wished them luck on their adventure before continuing on ours. We stopped one last time in Clint's Well, where we were expecting to find Bill and Erika. We anticipated catching up to them along the way, knowing that they, too, would have to make frequent stops. When we didn't see them there, we knew that they were already at camp with the Guckenburgs. After leaving Clint's Well, we drove non-stop to Aspen Spring, retracing the steps that we had taken two weeks ago. We took SR 87 ten miles north of Clint's Well to FR 95. From there, it was another ten miles to FR 139G, and another two miles after that to the turn-off for Aspen Spring. We followed that road all the way down until we found tents... ...but the tents were not where we had expected them to be! We had hoped to find everyone in the meadow next to the hay barn. Instead, they were camped in the forested part, along the side of the road, about two hundred feet from the fence. "What are they doing here?" we asked ourselves, parking the Jeep alongside the other two. After greetings were exchanged, we asked Janice and Danny why they had chosen to camp there, where the ground was uneven and sloped, rather than in the flat, beautiful meadow as we had instructed. They replied that they weren't sure if they were allowed to camp there or not! (D'oh!) We explained to them that there were no signs prohibiting camping there and pointed out that there were fire rings scattered throughout the meadow - it was okay to camp there. Bill could only say, "She's your sister, John!" and for the rest of the day, both he and John stole every opportunity they could find to poke fun at her choice of campsites. We chose a spot nearby and pitched our two tents - one for us and one for Mary. We then set up the rest of our camping gear to make our home away from home complete. Once that was said and done, it was time for lunch, so we made sandwiches and sat down to relax. While we ate, we watched the skies overhead begin to darken as huge thunderheads rolled in. Janice and Danny explained to us that they had had a good storm during the late afternoon on Friday, not long after they had arrived. It rained so hard that they decided to drive to the hay barn for shelter. There, they set up their tables and chairs and ate dinner under the tin roof. It wasn't long before we could hear the distant rumbling of thunder, growing louder and louder by the minute. Quickly, we set about covering up our camping gear and loading our food boxes and ice chests into our Jeeps. Just before the first raindrops fell from the dark clouds, we all retreated to the hay barn and set up our chairs. We parked the Jeeps nearby, too, so that we could easily access the ice chests and snacks. Once it rolled in, the storm did not pass quickly at all, and we spent the next couple of hours sitting under the tin roof of the hay barn. It was there that we had Erika's birthday party, complete with birthday gifts and a birthday cake. The kids really enjoyed playing under the hay barn, because there was plenty of dirt to go around. While Joshua rolled his dump trucks around in it, Mary shoveled it into buckets and onto the table and chairs. As soon as the rain let up, the kids took to running around and chasing each other in the corral...and that wore them out just in time for them to take a nap. While John and Danny put Mary and Joshua down for their naps in their tents, the rest of us stayed behind in the hay barn, as it had started raining again. That was when Bill discovered that they were running out of adult beverages. (Not my fault - I wasn't drinking! The morning sickness was still getting to me, so I couldn't even look at an alcoholic beverage!) It looked like they were going to have to make a trip into Clint's Well to buy some more. So, once the children were asleep, John, Danny, Janice and Bill took one of the Jeeps and left for Clint's Well. And, knowing that they would be gone a while, both Erika and I took advantage of the quiet time and took a nap in our tents! We managed to get about an hour of quiet time before the first child awoke. It was Joshua, and having awaken in a strange environment, he began to cry. For the next fifteen minutes, he was inconsolable; there was nothing Erika could do to ease his tears. Afraid that his cries were going to wake up Mary, she decided to bring him back to the hay barn, where he eventually calmed down. Not long after that, John and the others returned from their beer run to Clint's Well. Soon thereafter, Mary awakened from her nap, the rain clouds drifted away, and life returned to our campsite. Over the next couple of hours, John and Danny and Janice took the kids down to the creek to run them around. A little while later, they decided to take a hike to Pinchot Cabin, which was about one mile from our camp. Mary and Bill and I stayed behind at camp, as I was just too ill to hike and Bill's back was hurting him. (Mary only stayed because I was staying.) Not long after the hiking party left, a truck pulled into our campsite and parked at Aspen Spring, next to the hay barn. We watched as three people got out and began hiking on the trail. They only went about a hundred feet, though, before they stopped and began digging a hole! What on earth are they doing? I wondered. Were they burying something? Or were they digging something up? Whatever they were doing, they spent a long time doing it, for they were still there after our hiking party returned. Once they were finished, though, they made sure to stop by our campsite to let us know what they were doing: they were having a funeral for their family dog and had decided to bury him along the trail. I guess that was a good place to lay him to rest - out in the woods, probably where he liked to hike with his family. While our hikers were gone, we enjoyed the quiet time. While both Bill and I sat around the campsite and relaxed, Mary played with her new toy - a gift from Grandma at the beginning of the trip. It was a baby doll in a backpack, which she proudly toted around camp with her, never letting it out of her sight. She loved taking it out of the bag to feed it from its bottle or to brush its hair. I couldn't help but smile as I watched her, knowing that she was going to be a fine big sister someday. As dinnertime drew closer and closer, Bill and I noticed that the hiking party had been gone a long time - a little too long, it seemed. We mentioned going to look for them if they weren't back by a certain time. Just after five o'clock, though, two-fifths of the party returned to camp - not surprisingly, they were John and Danny, and they had taken a different route than before. When asked where the others were, they jokingly replied, "What others?" then went on to say that they had refused to follow them on the trail that they had chosen to take. "But it's a shortcut!" they insisted, but instead, Janice and Erika continued to hike on the Houston Brothers Trail, rather than follow the others. As a result, they beat the others back to camp by about twenty minutes. Now, the other three would have been back sooner, had it not been for Joshua, who had decided that he wanted to do his own thing. While they were hiking, he would suddenly turn around and start hiking in the opposite direction. Sometimes, he would just sit down on the trail and refuse to move. Other times, he wanted to be carried, so Mommy and Grandma would have to take turns carrying him on their shoulders. They were quite weary by the time they returned to camp, so naturally John and Danny chided them for not following them. Now that they were all back, safe and sound, it was time to cook dinner. Instead of making it a group effort, though, each family brought their own food and cooked it on their own camp stove. John and Mary and I ate our usual dinner of steak, canned vegetables, and noodles, while the others ate brats or chicken. This worked out quite nicely, because everyone got to eat what they wanted...well, except for Joshua, who refused to eat anything at all, except for bread! (You have to love that finicky toddler stage...) After dinner, Bill got the campfire going, and I set about looking for marshmallow-roasting sticks, so that we could make S'mores for dessert. John and I had brought plenty to share with everyone; however, Mary and Joshua were more interested in the Hershey's chocolate bar than the gooey marshmallows! Funny, I would have thought that they would be instantly attracted to something that makes a sticky mess! For the rest of the evening, we all sat around the campfire, eating snacks, swapping stories, and drinking what was left of the beer (except me, of course). Then, around nine o'clock, John and I decided to retire for the night. We had hoped that we would have a calm night, not like our last camping trip when Mary slept restlessly all night long. However, around one o'clock in the morning, she awakened after a nightmare and began to cry for her Dolly. I sprang out of my sleeping bag and went into her tent to help her, but since there was no moon that night, I couldn't see a thing! I groped around in the darkness to try to find Dolly, but I couldn't even find Mary, let alone that four-inch rag doll that she loved so much. Eventually, John got up to help me by lighting the lantern so that I could see. Once I found Dolly, all was well in the world again, and Mary soon fell back to sleep. I waited a little while; then, as quietly as I could, I sneaked out of the tent and zipped it up...and as I did so, I tripped over the lantern, knocking it over with a loud clank and waking Mary up all over again! D'oh! This time, John came to the rescue, and he ended up sleeping in Mary's tent with her for the rest of the night, to ensure that everyone got a good night's sleep. The next morning, around six o'clock, one by one we began to emerge from our tents to start the day. John and Bill got the campfire going, and we all gathered around to warm up. Soon, the camp stoves were fired up and breakfast was cooking, and the campground came to life once again. Our agenda for the day included a short hike on the Houston Brothers Trail before packing up camping and heading home. Shortly after 9:00 a.m., once we were all dressed and fed, we put on our hiking gear and headed out on the trail. Bill, however, stayed behind at camp - his back was no better that morning, so hiking was out of the question. The rest of us, however, followed the Houston Brothers Trail for about a mile, while John and I played tour guide, as none of the others had been past the hay barn on that trail. We pointed out, for example, the spot where John sliced his hand open after taking a nasty fall during our Labor Day weekend hike there. We also pointed out the little flags and the electric fences that were part of the experiment to test the impact of wildlife to the area. We hiked the trail slowly, at the kids' pace, so that we could let them play. Joshua and Mary had a wonderful time running through the meadows and trying to cross the little footbridges that had been placed there. They were fascinated by all of the fun things that they could do there, and it was fun to watch them enjoy it. We hiked along the trail until we came to the forest service sign about the Houston Draw Experiment; that was where we stopped and took a break before heading back to camp. We ate snacks, took pictures, and enjoyed watching the kids play around. At one point, Danny provided us with the entertainment by giving the kids horseback rides! He crawled around on all fours with both kids on his back. That had all of us - especially the kids - laughing hysterically. Once we were rested, it was time to go back...and naturally, the kids decided that they were done hiking. Joshua went the other way on the trail, while Mary insisted on being carried on "Daddy's shoulders". It made for a long hike back to camp. Upon our return, it was time for us to tear down our tents and pack up our gear. While we packed, John told his father that he wanted to buy a roof pod - Janice and Danny had a soft-sided bag that they had attached to the roof of their Jeep, but what we wanted was a hard-sided, sturdy roof pod, in which we could store all of our camping gear. We would suspend it from the ceiling of our carport and lower it onto the Jeep as needed. Now that our family was growing, we were quickly running out of space in the Jeep for all of our gear, so it was important that we buy one soon. Bill indicated that he had seen those at Checker, so we said that we would check it out. Having finished our packing, John and Mary and I left the campsite first, indicating that we would meet the others at the Famous Sam's in Payson for lunch. We figured that they would not be more than five minutes behind us, as they were almost finished themselves, so we decided to take a little detour, to do some exploring. Instead of taking FR 139G back to FR 95, we took a side road that we had seen on the way there - mainly because John wanted to see where it went. It proved to be a very interesting route - one that we were glad that we took - as it passed through a very lush, green meadow, in which we found numerous rusted old cars that were probably fifty years old, if not older. Towards the end of the meadow, we came to a sign facing the opposite direction, so we stopped to read it. It said, "Private Property, No Trespassing." But there was no sign indicating such on the other side of the meadow! How would we have known that we were on private land? And, had we not taken that route, we would not have seen such a pretty meadow! Minutes later, we merged onto FR 95 and headed back towards the highway, wondering if the others were either behind us or ahead of us. We figured that they were behind us, so we decided to stop in Clint's Well to give them a chance to catch up...and to get gas, too. While we were there, we kept a sharp eye out for them, but we never did see them pass us. Could they really be that far behind us? As we made our way south on Highway 87, we kept our eyes peeled for them, to no avail. It wasn't until we reached Pine that we first heard from them - however, the message was so garbled that we couldn't understand them. Had there been a problem? Were they ahead of us after all, wondering where we were? We had no idea, so we figured that the best thing to do was to proceed to Payson and wait for them there. Upon reaching Payson, we finally heard from them again; this time, they were much clearer, so we were able to find out what had happened to them. There had, in fact, been a problem: the battery in the Guckenburgs' Jeep had died, and Bill and Erika stayed behind to give them a jump start. That put them about twenty minutes behind us. They did manage to catch up to us (mainly because we had stopped for so long in Clint's Well), so we only had to wait about ten minutes for them in Payson. We ate lunch at the Famous Sam's in Payson; then, we all said goodbye to each other and drove back home to Phoenix on our own. It had been a great trip, despite the rain and the dead battery...of course, as we always say, it's just part of the adventure...

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