It was hard to believe, but five years had passed since the loss of our son William.  Five years...

As we tried to do every year, we made plans to pay our respects to William as close to the anniversary of his birth as possible (November 12).  Since the weekend after that date was The Breast Cancer 3-Day (in which I would be walking 60 miles to benefit Susan G. Komen For the Cure), we decided to do our annual trip to Potato Lake during the weekend before - November 8-9.  And instead of just driving up for the day, we decided to spend the weekend at the Gaard-Chak in Overgaard and do some hiking in the area.

While looking for trails to hike between Payson and Overgaard, John discovered that there was a new trail system in development within the Payson town limits, called PATS (or the Payson Area Trail System).  Although many of the trails are still considered under construction, several of the trails are open and ready for use.  This included the Houston Mesa Trail - which, of course, we had hiked before.  On the other side of town, there were three more trails: the Cypress Trail, the Monument Peak Trail, and the Boulders Loop Trail.  All of these trails were listed as relatively easy and about 2-3 miles long each.  We decided to hike the Boulders Loop Trail on Saturday morning, on our way to Overgaard; it was only 2.4 miles long, and there were two caches to be found along the way, too. 

On Saturday morning - bright and early - John and Mary and I embarked on our weekend adventure up north. We wasted no time getting out of town and soon arrived in Payson around 8:30 in the morning. 

Instead of driving straight to the trailhead, we decided to make a few stops in town to do some geocaching.  John had plotted out several caches for us to find, including a new one near the clinic and one that we couldn't find the last time we had looked for it.  We couldn't find the new one - nor could we get Internet access on our iPhones when we needed it, to find the much needed clue on Geocaching.com - so we gave up and moved on to the next one. 

The next cache was located near the Safeway, not far from the intersection of SR 87 and SR 260.  It was supposed to be hidden in a gigantic Christmas tree that is permanently decorated, but the last time we had looked for it, we just couldn't find it.  We weren't even optimistic about finding it this time, especially after we pulled into the parking lot and found that an RV show was taking place there.  That meant that there would be muggles all over the place, watching us look for the cache. 

As we approached the cache site, we found that there were four other geocachers - two men and two women - already there, looking for the cache.  We joined forces with them, and sure enough, with seven sets of eyes searching for the cache, it was found!  We all cheered, signed the log, and exchanged thank you's; then, we went our separate ways.

We looked for one more cache on the way to the trailhead. This one was located near the Gila Community College campus and could be found by hiking about a tenth of a mile along a path.  The walk was easy enough, but the cache was not that easy to find - mainly, because the coordinates were off by about forty feet.  Eventually, we figured it out and managed to make the grab; then, we hiked back to the parking lot.

After finding those two caches, we decided that we needed to get started on our hike.  To get to the trailhead, we turned from SR 260 onto Granite Dells Road (near the Safeway).  Granite Dells Road became FR 435 after about a mile and a half; from there, we continued along the unpaved forest road for an additional two and half miles, where the road dead-ended, at the Boulders Trailhead.

We began hiking almost immediately after we arrived, around 9:30 in the morning.  From the trailhead, the Boulders Trail descended directly into a wash then climbed out on the other side.  At that point, we had the choice of going either clockwise or counter-clockwise on the loop; we chose to go counter-clockwise, so we turned right at the junction.

For the first mile of the trail, we hiked through the beautiful oak, pinion and juniper forest and past the gigantic granite boulders that make up the Payson landscape.  Although it was a city trail, we certainly didn't have the feeling that we were hiking near the Payson town limits; the trail was just as wild and scenic as any other trail that we have hiked. 

Mary was especially fascinated by this trail, because it had her favorite thing: boulders.  She is an avid rock-climber and never passes up a chance to do it.  Seeing all of these beautiful boulders, Mary wanted nothing more than to climb to her heart's content.  Unfortunately, none of the boulders were accessible from the trail; most of them were blocked by thick, prickly foliage.  She was disappointed, but John promised her that, if we found a place for her to rock climb, we would give her fifteen minutes to do all of the climbing that she could do.

At the end of the first mile, we reached the junction with the Cypress Trail - and that was when John announced that we were about a half of a mile from a geocache, which we would be able to find along that trail.  That was when we had to make a critical decision: do we risk tacking an extra mile onto our hike to claim a geocache (and thus potentially risking our sanity during the meltdown), or do we bypass the cache and continue on the Boulders Loop?  In the end, it was our sense of adventure that made the decision for us; we were going to take the Cypress Trail to find the cache.

The geocache, as we discovered, was not along the Cypress Trail; instead, it was located in a wash, about a quarter of a mile off of the trail.  We ended up having to go cross-country to get to the wash, because we realized too late that we were going in the wrong direction.  That involved having to go up and over a ridge, then dropping down the other side into the wash.  After that, we boulder-hopped through the wash for about a tenth of a mile.  Finally, we had to climb up a rocky shelf, through a bunch of prickly plants, to claim the cache.

Third find of the day!

Once we had signed the log and replaced the geocache, we started back down the wash the way we had come.  Along the way, we found the perfect place for Mary to go rock-climbing.  Nearby, in a little cove, there was a wall of boulders - both large and small - that Mary had spied on the way there.  Since we had promised her that she could have fifteen minutes - and since she had been such a good little hiker that morning - we let her go nuts.

And that's what she did: she went nuts.  She climbed and climbed, higher and higher, up the big boulders and the small boulders, and she did it all with a big smile on her face.  For those fifteen minutes of playtime, life was perfect for our little mountain goat.

When playtime was over, we gathered up our child and returned the way we had come, over the ridge and back towards the Cypress Trail.  From there, we hiked back to the trail junction with the Boulders Trail...and that was when we made another critical decision: do we continue along the loop, or do we go back the way we came?  It was getting dangerously close to lunchtime, and we had not packed a lunch (just lots of snacks).  If we went back the way we came, it was one mile exactly; if we continued the loop, it was another 1.4 miles to the trailhead.

Once again, it was our sense of adventure that won out; we were going to finish the loop.

But first...there was still another geocache to be found, and it was right there at the trail junction, on top of a boulder.  Mary was very excited, and she immediately scrambled to the top to retrieve the cache.  That helped her get it out of her system...for now...

We continued on along the Boulders Loop for another 1.4 miles, which took us about an hour to complete.  Along the way, we passed by more of those gigantic granite boulders, some of which were as big as a house and impossible for Mary to climb.  Not that we had time for any more boulder climbing, though; we were getting hungry, and the Cliff bars were no longer holding us.  We told Mary, the faster we hiked, the quicker we could be back in Payson for lunch.

The trail finally emerged from the pinions and junipers and came back to the wash, about a quarter of a mile from the trailhead.  There, it continued along the ridgeline, above the wash, until we completed the loop.  We then crossed the wash and climbed out on the other side, where the 4Runner was waiting for us at the end of Granite Dells Road.

We wasted no time driving back into Payson for lunch; we also decided to do our shopping for the Gaard-Chak while we were in town.  Once we had all of our groceries and our lunch, we left Payson and started towards Overgaard, on SR 260.

We arrived at the Gaard-Chak an hour later, around 2:00 in the afternoon.  During our stay at the Gaard-Chak, there was much work to be done; Bill had asked John to look for and retrieve some of the tools that he had left behind there.  Just over a month before, Bill had been at the Gaard-Chak, laying tile, when he began to feel very ill.  He managed to drive himself back to Phoenix and was soon admitted to the hospital with a massive infection that nearly killed him.  He was finally back home and recovering and doing some light work in the garage, but he needed those tools first.

The Gaard-Chak was still in a state of construction. Bill and Erika had been in the process of remodeling the bathroom; although most of it was completed, there was still much work to be done.  John considered finishing the tile work, which had been left unfinished when Bill became ill; but since he wasn't sure what Bill wanted done, he left it alone.  He did do a couple of things to help out, though - it was the least he could do.

We spent the rest of the day at the cabin.  After getting the work done, we relaxed and watched movies in front of the warm fireplace.  Outside, a cold wind began to blow - the first signs that winter was coming to the high country.  Wintry storm clouds began to roll in, and it looked like it might snow overnight; but as quickly as they rolled in, the clouds were gone by morning, without leaving any snow behind.

The next morning, we left the Gaard-Chak bright and early, to begin our long, scenic drive to Potato Lake.  Along the way, John had plotted out about two dozen geocaches for us to find, on SR 260 and on FR 300 (the Rim Road); we had the potential to break our own record for the most geocaches found in one day.  (Our current record was fifteen.)

The first few caches that we found were along SR 260, as we pulled out of Overgaard.  One was an easy park and grab, located just outside of a campground near Forest Lakes; we found two others off of a side road, but had to hike to retrieve them.  There was a fourth cache located off of the Willow Springs Lake Trail; that one required hiking a quarter mile to claim it, but that was no problem for us.

Then, we turned onto the Rim Road (FR 300), where a whole plethora of caches were waiting for us.  We had only found a handful of the caches that were hidden along the Rim Road during our previous adventures.  There were so many more to be found, and that day was the perfect day to do it.  Some of the caches required a short hike, like the one along the General Crook Trail; many of the others were just off of the road, on the edge of the Mogollon Rim. 

A short distance from the Kehl Ridge Campground, we stopped to look for one cache that had been on our GPS for a long time, but we had never bothered to search for it before.  Usually, we were in a hurry to get to a trailhead - or to drive home from one - so hiking an additional quarter of a mile was out of the question.  This time, we would find it.

The cache was a little more than a tenth of a mile off of the road; along the way, we stopped to take pictures of a very odd ponderosa pine tree, for which the cache was named.  The tree had apparently started out normally enough, but for whatever reason, it ended up with two ninety-degree bends in it - so, a whole ten-foot section of the tree was horizontal.  It was indeed very odd. 

That was the last cache that we found along FR 300.  The next cache that we found was on FR 147, and it was located just down the road from our favorite campsite (the very same campsite where we had camped when we came to scatter William's ashes at Potato Lake).  After we retrieved that one, our next stop was Potato Lake.

As usual, Potato Lake was very peaceful and quiet that morning.  There were only two other people there, and we could tell that they were geocachers, because they walking in the area where we knew a cache was hidden.  A few minutes later, they emerged from the cache site and walked back to their truck, leaving us alone at the lake.

There was a new geocache to be found at Potato Lake, one that had only been hidden a few weeks before.  It was located in a hollowed out tree, on the hill overlooking the lake.  After finding that one, we set off to look for the other cache that we had not found the last time we had cached in the area.  Unfortunately, we discovered that the cache that we thought was that cache was the one that we had found; the one that we thought we had found, but had not, was no longer active.  So, we found the same cache twice...but at least it was easier to find the second time around!  Oh well!

By the time we left Potato Lake that morning, we had found a total of fifteen caches - which, of course, tied our record for the most caches found in one day.  Now we needed to break that tie...

But first: lunch. 

As we made our way down from the Mogollon Rim, we stopped in Pine to eat lunch.  Instead of eating at the usual place (Sidewinders), we went to the Mogollon Steak House and Lounge, to see if it was any good.  Although it was the typical bar food, we did enjoy watching the football game on the gigantic projection screen.

After lunch, we drove into Payson and made one more attempt to find that geocache that had eluded us (the one near the clinic).  This time, we managed to look up the clue on the Internet before we lost the Edge Network on our iPhones.  (Apparently, Payson is a dead zone for the Edge Network.)  Now that we knew the clue, finding the cache was a piece of cake...and that was cache #16 for the day: a new record!

On the way home from Payson, we stopped for one more cache, just for good measure.  This one was a virtual cache - one where we had to extract a piece of information off of a monument and send it to the cache's owner to claim it as a find.  That particular monument was located off of SR 87, just north of Fountain Hills, and we didn't even have to get out of the car to get the necessary information.  That cache was #17 for the day...

Once we had claimed that last geocache, we called it quits for the day.  After all, we were almost home.  And so, with that, our weekend's adventure came to a close...

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