November 16-17, 2002

"1011"

And so, as the year quickly drew to a close, it was time for us to take one last weekend of reprieve, to go camping and relax. We would soon be in the midst of the holiday rush, during which time we would be preparing for our two-week long vacation in December, so John and I decided that we needed one last weekend of sanity, just to catch our breath and regroup before the craziness began. Our destination that weekend was the Reavis Canyon area, in the Superstition Mountains near Superior. It was an area that we had only visited once before, when we hiked the Reavis Canyon Trail in February 2001. Back then, we were still driving our old Ford Econoline van and could not make it all the way to the trailhead for fear of getting stuck, so we had to park a mile away and walk the rest of the way. Now, we had a Jeep, which meant that we could not only make it to the trailhead, but we could also explore more of the roads in that area. On Friday night, we packed up the Jeep with all of our camping equipment, and on Saturday morning, at 8:00 a.m., we left the house and drove towards Superior on US 60, to find a place to camp for the night. Our route took us east on US 60 to Happy Camp Road (FR 8), which is located about five miles west of Superior. After following Happy Camp Road for a while, we turned off onto FR 372 (?), which is the road that goes to the Reavis Canyon Trailhead. Along the way, though, we turned off again, onto a forest road that John had outlined on a topo map that he had printed out. From there, we would look for yet another road that would take us to Happy Camp, which appeared to be a nice place for us to camp. We soon found that road, as indicated on the topo map, and we found an area that was suitable for camping. Although it was a nice campsite, it was a bit exposed - there weren't a whole lot of trees there - so we decided to move on and find something else. As we continued along the main road, we soon came to a place where the road became a little rough…and it only got worse from there. We ended up in a small canyon, where the road was completely washed out, and getting through it involved some very tricky maneuvering. Eventually, the road disappeared altogether - it became a single track, on which we saw a couple of people walking their bicycles. (They turned around and looked at us like we were insane for bringing our Jeep that far.) At that point, we decided that it was in our best interest to turn around. After we turned around, we soon came across FR 1011 - a nice 4WD road that took us to a much better campsite. Located next to a wash and surrounded by a number of desert shrubs and mesquite trees, we claimed it as our campsite. It was already after 10:00 a.m. when we stopped to set up our campsite. While John and I pitched our tent and arranged our table and chairs, Mary played around the campsite, collecting rocks and dragging her dollies through the dirt. Once everything was finished, we decided to take a little walk in the wash, to see how far we could get; unfortunately, we only made it about 100 feet before Mary decided that it was lunchtime. She was getting cranky, and when we asked her if she wanted to eat, she shouted, "Yeah!" and immediately turned around to head back to camp. Our hike for the day was over. After lunch, the laziness settled in, more or less. John decided to climb up to the top of the hill nearby, while I stayed with Mary at camp and videotaped our surroundings. I did a three hundred sixty-degree panorama beginning with Mary, who was playing by the edge of the wash. By the time I had returned the camera to the wash, Mary was gone! She was already about fifty feet down the wash, shouting, "Daddy!" She was looking for John but didn't know where he had gone. Fortunately, John was on his way down the hill, and when she finally saw him, all was well in the world again. Once father and daughter were reunited, it was time for Mary to take a nap. It didn't take us long to get her to sleep, and she ended up sleeping two hours, giving us the time we needed to relax (among other things…). She woke up quite refreshed and cheerful, so we decided to put her back into the Jeep and take her for a ride. Since it was obvious that we weren't going to be hiking that day, we thought it would be fun to do a little four-wheeling instead. First of all, we tried to drive down the wash next to our campsite, but when the turns began to get a little tight for our Jeep, we decided to turn around. Next, we found some nice four-wheel drive roads that, as we discovered, were part of the Arizona Trail system. One of those roads took us down to the dry creek where the main road had turned into a single track; we paralleled that creek for a little while, until the road that we were on became too rough for our liking. We turned around there and started back towards camp. On the way back to our campsite, we found yet another road to explore. This one took us up and over one of hills that overlooked our campsite. Although it wasn't very rough, the road was very steep and rocky, and occasionally, as the Jeep climbed, we could feel one wheel start to slip. The other three wheels, however, would compensate for the slippage, and the Jeep continued to climb until at last it reached the top. "Good Jeep!" John said to it, patting it on the dashboard. "Four wheel drive is definitely nice to have, along with the 5.2 liter engine…" After we had gone as far as we could go on that road, we returned to the main road and tried to decide where to go next - should we go back to camp, or should we try another road? Since it was still early enough in the day, we opted to explore one more road: the Reavis Canyon Trailhead. It definitely required a four-wheel drive vehicle to get there, what with all of the creek crossings. One part of the road would even force us to drive through the creek for a few hundred feet. (Back in February 2001, there was even water in that creek!) It sounded like a fun challenge for us to attempt. And did we make it to the trailhead? Of course we did! The Jeep handled the creek crossings with the greatest of ease, and it took us all the way to the gate at the trailhead! Once we had succeeded at that, it was time for us to head back to our campsite to cook dinner. At about the same time, it started getting very cool outside. All day long, it had been very windy; now that the sun was beginning to set, we were starting to get quite cold. Soon after dinner, we started putting on the extra layers of clothing for warmth, and after that, John started up a fire in the fire ring, around which we huddled for most of the evening. The wind did not stop after the sun went down, and that presented us with an interesting dilemma: do we abort the trip, or do we brave the cold temperatures? Neither one of us wanted to be the one to make the decision to leave; we kept saying to each other, "You call it." In the end, I finally said, "Let's just stay. I think that we can tough it out." Just before we retired for the evening, though, we all crawled into the Jeep to escape from the wind and to warm up as much as we could before crawling into the tent. The wind continued through the night, waking both John and me periodically. Mary, on the other hand, slept through the night and even managed to stay in her sleeping bag. I'm sure that she stayed very warm that way. I also managed to stay warm, mummied in my sleeping bag, but John did not. At 4:30 a.m., he finally gave up on trying to sleep, and he crawled out of the tent to start the day. Despite the chilling wind, he warmed up by looking for dead wood to burn in the fire, and he once he had built a nice fire, he sat down next to it and waited for Mary and me to wake up. I woke up at 6:00 a.m., having slept only a little bit since 4:30. By that time, John had come up with a wonderful idea for our day. He suggested that we finally visit the Boyce Thompson Arboretum, which was not far from there. It was one of those places that we had often talked about going to see, but the opportunity had never presented itself. Today was the perfect chance to go, since we didn't have anything else to do. I loved the idea and couldn't wait to see it. We packed up our campsite at 8:00 a.m. and then drove the short distance to the Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park, which is located just outside of Superior's town limits. It is home to thousands of species of plant life, from herbs and flowers to giant trees and cacti in all shapes and sizes. It is very popular during the autumn months, during which time people come from far and wide to see the leaves change colors. After paying our entry fee of $6.00 per person, John parked the Jeep at the visitor center. There, we were greeted by a large display of beautiful cactus plants and other succulents for sale. They ranged in price from $2.00 for the very small plants, to $100 for some of the larger ones. At the visitor center, we started hiking the Main Trail - a 1.5 mile-long loop trail that circles the entire park. There are lots of spur trails, though, and almost immediately after we started hiking, we took one of those trails. This one led us through the Australian section of the park, where we found Red Gum and Eucalyptus Trees. One of the highlights of this spur trail was Mr. Big, a very old Red Gum tree that is 80 feet in circumference! Another feature in the Australian sector is the Wool Shed, and old sheep farm that was once owned by an Australian woman who made Pinal County, Arizona, her home. The wool shed is nicely preserved and gives visitors an interesting look into the past. After crossing over the Outback Bridge, we rejoined the Main Trail and stayed on that for most of our hike. Along the way, we stopped to visit the Herb Garden, where we found herbs of every kind, as well as roses, lavender, and ornamental fruit trees (orange, pomegranate, and so on). In the Herb Garden, we also saw the Clevenger House, which was built at the turn of the twentieth century. Built into the mountain, that tiny, two room house once housed a family of five until it was abandoned in 1920. Later, it served as a playhouse for the children of Boyce Thompson. Now, it has been preserved for the enjoyment of the park's visitors. One of our other stops along the way was Queen Creek, where we paused for a short breather. John tried to teach Mary how to step on the rocks to cross the creek - of course, Mary's balance is worse than mine! - and then he let her splash in the cold water, which she absolutely enjoyed. Moving on, we soon began to climb to the desert section of the trail. There, we could see the Picket Post House, which was built by Boyce Thompson in the 1950's. Then, as we descended, we came to Ayers Lake and the Cactus Trail. The Cactus Trail was truly amazing, with cacti from desert regions from all over the world. After taking the spur trail through the Cactus Garden, we returned to the Main Trail and completed our hike. At 11:00, we found ourselves back at the visitor's center, and at that point, it was time for us to go home. Early in the afternoon, we arrived back in Phoenix, and the weekend drew to a close. Although we didn't do much, compared to what we would normally do in a weekend, we at least had a nice, relaxing time, which was what we needed to regroup before the insanity began. It was a great way to end the year.

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