Now that we are geocachers, our adventures are beginning to take an interesting turn.  We no longer just hike or camp; the game of geocaching is slowly creeping into every activity that we do on our weekends.

And sometimes, that's all we do with our weekends.  Take September 23, for example - a day that we devoted entirely to geocaching.  We decided that it would be a good day to hide two new caches, as well as explore a part of the state that we had never seen before.

Before leaving the house that morning, John did some research to find the perfect places for us to hide our new treasures.  There were rules that we had to follow when placing a cache; and one rule was that we could not place a cache within a tenth of a mile from another cache.  In order to be sure that we didn't violate that rule, John first looked up some possible spots on Google Earth then loaded cache coordinates for those areas onto the GPS.

Next, we built our caches.  Having already found nearly 100 caches, we had seen quite the variety of caching containers - everything from small Altoids tins to large Rubbermaid bins.  We had a lot of these containers just lying around the house: cookie and candy tins, watch and jewelry boxes, plastic storage bins...you name it!  So we made several of them into caches.

Putting these caches together gave me the opportunity to clean out Mary's toy box of all of the McDonald's Happy Meal prizes that she had collected throughout the years.  These kid's meal toys are often used as trade items in geocaches; and we had a ton of them.  We gathered all of them up and used them to create our new caches.  We placed the rest of them into a bin to use for trading.

To finish up our new caches, we added: a pencil or pen, a small notebook, and a geocaching disclaimer (printed from the Geocaching website).  We placed these items into a Ziploc bag to protect them from the elements (rain, snow, and whatnot) then put the whole thing into a container.  And with that, we were ready to go caching!

We started the day off going north on I-17 towards Flagstaff.  Along the way, we stopped to find two geocaches near Camp Verde - conveniently, we had to stop in Camp Verde anyway, to use the facilities.  After leaving Camp Verde, we continued north until we came to the Sedona exit (the junction with SR 179). 

"I can't believe that there isn't a geocache here at this exit," John said as he pulled off of the highway.  "I think it's time that we put one here."

And that is precisely what we did!  After parking the 4Runner off of the highway, we walked into the desert and placed one of our new caches - a medium-sized cookie tin filled with swag - in the hollow of a tree.  Then, we marked the location on our GPS.

Before we could leave our cache behind, however, we needed to give it a name.  Considering that we were not too far from the Wet Beaver Creek and the Bell Trailhead, John decided to call our new cache "Looking for Beaver". 

Once our cache had been placed, we got back into the 4Runner and merged back onto I-17.  We continued on until we came to the Stoneman Lake Road exit, a few miles north of SR 179. 

The area around Stoneman Lake was one that we had never explored before.  In fact, John had only seen a tiny portion of the area over seven years ago when he and Danny hiked some of the Apache Maid Trail as part of the extreme Wet Beaver Loop.  Since then, John had been meaning to return to that area to do some exploring.

After exiting I-17, we took Stoneman Lake Road (FR 213) about four miles to a T-intersection.  To the left, Stoneman Lake Road continues on towards the small mountain lake and eventually intersects with Forest Highway 3 (Lake Mary Road).  To the right, the road becomes FR 229 - oh yes, a dirt road - that cuts through the Coconino National Forest.  This road would take us to FR 620, which would take us to the top of Apache Maid Mountain; John suggested that we do it, because it sounded like fun.

As we traveled along FR 229, we discovered that the land was just beautiful!  There were camping opportunities aplenty and lots of roads to explore.  There were probably trails, too; we would have to do some research to find out where they were.

We continued along the road and soon came to Apache Maid Mountain.  Naturally, we followed that winding, narrow, mountainous road - FR 620 - all the way to the top.  Along the way, we looked at the GPS to see if there were any geocaches to be found up there and were surprised to find that there weren't any!  We decided that we were going to have to put one there; it was high time that Apache Maid Mountain had a cache placed there.

At the top of Apache Maid Mountain, we found a parking area, a restroom, and a US Forest Service Watch Tower.  A pick-up truck was parked nearby, meaning that the tower was currently occupied by a forest ranger.  We thought about going up to visit with the ranger, but we decided not to.  Instead, we set about our task of hiding our geocache.

Behind the restrooms, at the very edge of the mountaintop, we found a pile of boulders.  Mary immediately ran over to them and started climbing all over them.  John and I looked at each other and both agreed that that would be the perfect place for us to hide our cache.

And so, we put our treasure in a small crevice in between the rocks and covered it up with a couple of stones.  Then, John stood on top of the rock pile and marked the location on his GPS. 

Our task completed, we left Apache Maid Mountain to continue exploring the area.  At the junction of Forest Roads 620 and 229, there was a third road - a Jeep trail - that looked rather interesting.  (I believe John even said his famous line: "Look, honey: a road!")  Naturally, we decided to take it to see where it went.

The road started out on a ridgeline on the base of Apache Maid Mountain then traversed through a dry meadow.  After a couple of miles, it came to a intersection with another Jeep trail; we continued straight through the junction and soon dropped into a dry creek.  Once on the other side of the creek, we arrived at an old cabin.  (We would later learn that the old cabin was Waldroup Place...)

A bit further up the road, John realized that he had been there before; and indeed he had been there before!  In fact, the road was part of the Apache Maid Trail, which he and Danny had hiked as part of the Wet Beaver Loop.  On the first night of their trip, they had camped near Waldroup Tank nearby!

The road dead-ended at the Wet Beaver Wilderness boundary.  "This is it!" John exclaimed.  "This is where we entered Wet Beaver Canyon; these are the dry waterfalls that Danny and I had to climb down when we did our backpack!"

With that, we got out of the 4Runner and walked through that piece of John and Danny's Wet Beaver trip.  They had hiked the Apache Maid Trail up to that meadow and wound up at Waldroup Tank.  Completely exhausted and a little dehydrated, they were grateful to have finally found water at the tank; but when they filtered it, they discovered that the water was like sludge.  Of course, since they needed it, they drank it anyway.  (Little did they know that, if they had gone a little bit further, they would have found other, cleaner tanks; we found several tanks in the area!)  They ended up camping there that night; and the next day, they started their descent into the canyon.

John really wanted to show us what the hike down the waterfalls was like, but it would have to wait for another day; it was already past lunchtime, and we didn't have any hiking equipment with us that day.  So, with that, we left the Apache Maid Trail and headed back towards FR 229.

We ate lunch that afternoon at Stoneman Lake, which, to our surprise, actually had water in it.  (We had suspected that the lake would be dry due to the drought.)  We were equally surprised to find not only lakeside houses but a whole subdivision nearby!  We took a drive through the neighborhood to check out the houses; we even picked up a real-estate brochure from a box to see what was for sale and what the properties cost.  The houses in this subdivision came in a variety of shapes and sizes, ranging from small vacation cabins to large luxury homes - all of them just lovely.

After lunch, we decided that it was time for us to head home; we had lots of things to do around the house (including getting our new caches published), so with that, we left Stoneman Lake and started towards home.

To get home, we had two options: 1) we could return to Phoenix on I-17...along with all of the other Sunday afternoon traffic; or 2) we could take FR 229 to FH 3 (Lake Mary Road) and take that south to Happy Jack.  From there, we could hop onto SR 87, which would take us back to town.  Although the second route was definitely the longer route, it was the less aggravating of the two; so we decided to save ourselves the headache and go with it.

The drive to Payson was quick and uneventful.  On the way there, Mary took a long nap, so we had some quiet time, too.

Then, we arrived in Payson...and just as we rolled into town, traffic came to a screeching halt!  The cars were backed up for miles, all the way to the Home Depot at the northern end of town; and at first, they weren't moving.  Eventually, the line of cars started moving again, at a very slow crawl.  It took us more than a half an hour to make it to the other end of town. 

We had a hard time believing that the traffic jam was due to everyone trying to get back into town at once.  Our first suspicion was that there was an accident near the Mazatzal Casino; but we soon learned that that was not the case.  We soon found a highway warning sign in the distance - far away enough that we couldn't read it - obviously warning of happenings ahead on SR 87.

We pulled out of the traffic jam and turned left into a Circle K so that we could get some drinks and snacks for the long journey home.  While we were paying for our stuff, we learned from the cashier what was going on with SR 87.  The highway was closed near Sunflower because a tanker truck had exploded!  All of those folks ahead of us were basically stuck, unless they figured out an alternate route home.

But not us.  We were smarter than that.  Instead of staying with the traffic on the Beeline, we decided to turn around.  Traveling home on I-17 was still a viable option; it was out of the way, but anything was better than being stuck in that mess! 

To get to the I-17, we took the Beeline north, past Pine and Strawberry, until we came to SR 260 West.  This route would take us to Camp Verde; and from there, we could hop onto the interstate.

Traffic on that route was surprisingly light; apparently, very few people had figured out that that was a good route to take.  Even the I-17 was moving along up to speed!  Would we make it home without further incident?

Not a chance...

After traveling south on I-17 for a few miles, we came to another ADOT warning sign, this one warning us that traffic would come to a screeching halt in a few miles (specifically, five miles north of the Sunset Point Rest Area).  As promised, when we arrived at that very spot, traffic was at a stand-still.

And there we sat...

We listened to the radio in hopes of finding information about the hold-up.  What we learned was that there was a fatal accident at New River Road. We were looking at a two- to three-hour wait; and with the Beeline closed, there was no other way around the mess.  We were officially stuck.

And what made matters worse, Mary and I had to pee.  And the rest area was still five miles away.  It took us over an hour to go five miles, too; we were in agony by the time we pulled off at the rest area!

Getting back onto the highway meant taking our life into our hands.  There were a lot of pissed-off people caught in that traffic jam; a lot of them had started driving in the emergency lane in order to cut in front of others.  Others were so ticked off about these jerks that they became jerks themselves.  One of these jerks decided that he didn't want anyone cutting in front of him, no matter what.  He even tried to sideswipe an SUV that was merging back onto the highway from the rest area!  So he was going to create an even bigger back-up on the highway by causing another accident!  Brilliant idea!

When traffic started moving again, it moved at a very slow crawl (less than 20 miles an hour).  During that time, John's parents called us to see which traffic jam we were stuck in.  Knowing that we were going to be very late getting home, they invited us to dinner.  Along the way, we kept them up to date on our progress...and dinner kept getting pushed later and later...

The traffic jam finally broke free just past Black Canyon City - more than three hours later.  At that point, we drove like mad, hoping to make it to dinner before it got cold.  Surprisingly, we made it to Bill & Erika's house at 6:00 p.m. on the dot!

After returning home from dinner that evening, we sat down at the computer and published our two new geocaches.  Our first one - "Looking for Beaver" - was published within a couple of hours.  The second one, however, was rejected!  The reason was that it was within a tenth of a mile from another cache.  John couldn't believe it; he was certain that there wasn't another cache around for miles.  That was when he realized that he had not loaded the caches for that area onto the GPS after all.

Having learned that news, there was only one thing for us to do; we would have to return to Apache Maid Mountain to move our cache to a new location.  The best way to accomplish that was to return the following weekend and camp in the area...

Return to Naked in the Woods.