When life takes over, it's very hard to get outdoors and do what we love to do...

It had been nearly two months since our last adventure in the outdoors, and we were itching to do something.  Problem was, I had been spending many weekends preparing to walk 60 miles in the Breast Cancer 3-Day; as a Training Walk Leader, I was doing training walks at least twice a month, so that didn't leave us much time to do anything else.  Finally, with only two weeks to go before the 3-Day, we decided to do a nice, relaxing camping trip, to give us all a chance to unwind and rest and escape from reality for a little while.

Since it was so late in the year, we decided to go to Washington Park - a primitive campground that we had not been to in a very long time.  The last time we were there, Mary was only three months old, and we - along with Bill and Erika - were going to take her hiking along the one section of the Highline Trail that John had not yet done (the section where the Dude Fire of 1984 had obliterated all of the tree cover).  Then, we would camp in the motor home.  Unfortunately, it was so cold - and the wind was so fierce - that we only made it twenty feet down the trail before we decided that it was just too cold to have Mary out in that wind.  We didn't even camp there that night, because we just couldn't see being stuck in the motor home all night, only to stay out of the wind.

Before that, John and I had camped one other time at Washington Park, just three months after we were married, in October 1999.  We camped with my friend Lori Ballard and her daughter Megan, who was seven years old at the time, and we all froze our butts off in the freezing wind. 

Hmmm...there was definitely a pattern here...what exactly were we thinking when we decided to make another autumn trip to Washington Park?

This year was much different, though; 1999 and 2000 had been normal years, as far as temperatures were concerned.  During those two years, the high country turned cold right on target, and the snow fell early on in the season.  In 2006, though, we were in the midst of an Indian summer in the Valley; temperatures were still in the 100's, which is very unusual that close to Halloween.  That meant that Washington Park was going to be perfect - maybe even a little warm - during our camping trip.

With all of our gear packed in the 4Runner - and in the pod - John and Mary and I left the house around 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, October 21 and started up towards Washington Park. 

It was a very long drive to Washington Park; to get there, we took SR 87 through Payson, then kept going north.  Just a few miles shy of Strawberry, we turned right onto the Control Road and took that primitive dirt road for several miles, until we arrived at the very end of the road, where Washington Park - and one of the Highline Trail trailheads - is located.

When we arrived at Washington Park, it was lunchtime; while John got the tents set up, I worked at making sandwiches for all of us.  We then relaxed and ate in the warm afternoon sun.

Once our campsite was set up, it was time to play.  John went exploring; Mary and I played in the East Verde River, which flowed next to the campground.  I was able to take some beautiful pictures of her while she played in the water.

Another thing we did was, we worked with Mary to help her ride her bicycle.  She had received a pink Disney Princess bicycle for Christmas last year, but she still could not ride it, even with the training wheels.  Once she got started, she rode it fine, but she had trouble getting it going.  So we thought, why not work with her while we're camping?  We had nothing better to do!  Well, that turned out to be a bad idea, because trying to ride on the rocky forest roads with a Disney Princess bicycle was much more difficult than trying to ride through the neighborhood!  We gave up on that idea after only fifteen minutes.

Later that afternoon, after John returned from exploring, we discovered that we did not have any camping gas with us, and the camp stove was empty.  That was going to make cooking dinner a little difficult.  So John got into the 4Runner and drove into Strawberry to buy some.  He was gone for an hour.  Meanwhile, Mary and I relaxed at camp, played in the creek, and enjoyed the quiet time.

When John returned with the camping gas - and a six-pack of beer - he joined us at the creek and took his turn playing with Mary.  This time, she managed to fall into the creek; she was fine, but the sleeves to her jacket were soaked.  We had to get the campfire going to dry them out for her, so that she could wear the jacket after the sun went down.

Just before dinner, we decided to take a walk - a half-mile walk up the road and back again.  As we walked along Houston Mesa Road, we were surprised to see how few people were camped there.  We didn't even realize that we had a neighbor camped next to us until we started walking and saw his tent.  Typically, Washington Park is packed with people; we thought for sure that people would be flocking to the Rim to escape the hundred degree heat in the Valley, but apparently, we were wrong. 

At the end of our perfectly lazy day, a lazy night fell.  After dinner, we sat around the campfire, drinking beer and making S'mores and enjoying the peace and quiet in the campground.  It did get cold that night, but it was nowhere near as cold as it typically gets on the Mogollon Rim in October.  For once, we had a lovely time...

The next morning, we slept late.  ("Late" for us is 7:00 a.m.)  And after we did get out of bed, we started another lazy day.  We didn't have any hiking plans for the morning, so instead, we just sat around the campfire and enjoyed the last few hours of cool air before heading back to the heat in Phoenix.

But of course, all good things must come to an end.  Around 10:00 a.m., we packed up our campsite and headed back down the mountain, towards Phoenix...

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