Thanksgiving 2006 wasn't going to be a grandiose affair as in years past.  Typically, our Thanksgiving gatherings have always been large; even last year, when we traveled to South Carolina for the holiday, the Thanksgiving dinner was a huge deal.  This year, however, our Thanksgiving was going to be small and quiet.

Upon learning that there would only be five of us for Thanksgiving dinner - the three of us and Bill and Erika - Erika and I started discussing the possibility of taking our Thanksgiving holiday to the Gaard-Chak in Overgaard.  We would make a traditional Thanksgiving dinner up there then spend the rest of the four-day weekend enjoying a typical Verley adventure in the high country.  That sounded to me like a nice way to spend the holiday, and it didn't take much to get Bill and John to agree to it, too. 

We gathered at the Gaard-Chak on Thanksgiving morning - November 23, 2006.  Bill and Erika left their house early in the morning and arrived a few hours before us.  We, on the other hand, left our house around 7:00 in the morning and arrived in Overgaard around 9:00. 

And once we were all there, the preparations began!

The cooking was an all-day affair.  While John worked on the turkey, which he slow-roasted on the BBQ grill, Erika and I worked on the side-dishes: the stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, carrots, bread...you name it!  We also had two pies for dessert: an apple and a mincemeat, which was Bill's favorite.  It was indeed going to be quite the gorging!

All of that for five people?  Well, it turned out that it wasn't going to be just five of us after all.  Erika had decided to invite Rick, the next door neighbor in Overgaard.  Rick didn't have anywhere else to go for Thanksgiving, so we decided to share our fantastic feast with him.  Naturally, he accepted our invitation and volunteered to bring the sweet potatoes!

Dinner was served around 3:30 p.m.  The six of us gathered around the kitchen table and enjoyed every bite of that wonderful dinner.  Good food and good company: that was what made it a Thanksgiving feast to remember.

After dinner, we rolled ourselves into the living room, where Bill lit a fire in the fireplace to warm the place up.  We spent the rest of the evening watching RV starring Robin Williams for about the thirtieth time.  (Now there's a movie that is very true to life!)  Then, once that was over, it was off to bed...

The next morning, having recovered from the feast of the day before, we all crawled out of bed early to get ready for our adventure of the day.  This was where the fun would begin.

The plan for the day was to take a drive out to Greer, a lovely little town nestled in the White Mountains.  None of us had been there before, so we decided to go there to see what it was all about.  The problem, however, would be getting there.  During Labor Day weekend, John and I discovered that the road to Big Lake - the preferred route to Greer - was closed due to construction.  We had no idea if that route was still closed or not, so we decided to check it out for ourselves.

And sure enough, there were signs posted that SR 273 was closed for construction through December (or so).  And just because we didn't believe the signs, we drove down SR 273 until we reached the road closure.  At that point, we pulled out the Forest Service map and started looking for a better route back to SR 260. 

Once we were back on SR 260, we continued eastbound until we came to the turnoff to Greer: SR 373.  This was a very scenic route that took us through a thick forest of pine, fir and spruce trees, high up in the White Mountains.  Along the way, we drove through a small community of well-kempt summer homes and lodges; beyond that, about twenty miles in on SR 373, we finally arrived in Greer, AZ. 

The town of Greer, as we discovered, is a clean and well-manicured little community: truly a gem in the White Mountains.  The town consists of several beautiful homes, a few stores and restaurants, a post office, a school, and a couple of motels.  Its main attraction is the Greer Lodge, one of the most popular ski lodges in the region.  Despite the fact that it was only mid-November and there was no snow to be found in the mountains, the Greer Lodge was very busy that day, packed with visitors to the area.  The parking lot at the lodge was almost completely full, and inside the restaurant, people were waiting in line for tables for lunch.

Since it was lunchtime when we arrived in town, we decided that we would eat at the Greer Lodge, too.  (Of course, it wasn't like we had a choice in venues; the other restaurants were not yet open for business, so it looked like the Greer Lodge had a captive audience.)  Although there was a line, we didn't have to wait very long for a table: only about fifteen minutes.  We were then seated at a table next to the great window that overlooked the ponds out in the back.  It was a perfect spot for lunch.

After lunch, we went outside and walked around the ponds so that we could enjoy the warm sunshine that was making a brief appearance that afternoon.  Mary amused herself by chasing the ducks and geese that were out swimming on the ponds.  Then, after Bill was done paying for lunch, he gathered us up, and we left the lodge.

On the way out of Greer, John had one of his infamous moments.  As we were approaching the turnoff to SR 260, he announced, "Look, honey, a road!" 

This was a road that he had seen before but had never had a chance to explore.  According to the Forest Service map, the road led up to Antelope Mountain. The entrance to the road was located on the other side of the junction between State Routes 260 and 373.  Now that he knew where to go, John had give it a try.  So, the rest of us braced ourselves for what was soon to come.

From the get-go, the road was rocky, rough, and rutted...and that was just the flat part!  The first half-mile of the road took us past a corral and towards the hill.  It then curved around the base of the hill and began its ascent.  We immediately came to one sharp switchback, and after that, the road climbed at a very steep grade, along a narrow and rocky road, towards the summit. 

Of course, the 4Runner handled it quite nicely.  What a good SUV.

The summit of Antelope Mountain was interesting.  We found several old antennas, as well as an abandoned trailer and a wooden shack with bits of metal scattered about.  We got out of the 4Runner and walked around to get a closer look at the surroundings; but since it was cold and windy up on the top, we only stayed a few minutes.

Coming down from Antelope Mountain, John demonstrated the DAC - Downhill Assist - button on the 4Runner.  This is a feature that we did not have on our old Jeep Grand Cherokee; and the first time John used it, he thought that he had broken something.  When engaged, the DAC sounds like there is something grinding in the engine, and that is very disturbing.  What is actually happening, though, is the brakes engage quickly, keeping the vehicle from exceeding five miles an hour during a steep descent.  When used with the 4WD-Lo Gear, it is the perfect tool for descending a hill such as the one we had just climbed.  It helped us get off of the mountain safe and sound.

After completing our exploration of Antelope Mountain, we decided that it was time to head back to Overgaard.  Erika still wanted to do some shopping at the Dollar Store for supplies for the trailer, and John and Bill needed to do some shopping, too.  (I believe they went to the bar; they did return with another case of beer.)  So, we all split up to go run our errands; and once we were done, we met back up at the Gaard-Chak for dinner...

...which, of course, consisted of Thanksgiving leftovers that we heated up ourselves.  Nothing can beat those leftovers, twenty-four hours after the holiday!

And so, the five of us retired once again for the evening, watching DVD's by the fireplace until, one by one, we all fell asleep.

In the middle of the very cold night, Mama Cat (Erika's cat, Precious, who was Calvin's mother) started howling.  At 17 years old, Precious can no longer be left alone at home; she is now blind in one eye and too old to fend for herself, so Erika has begun taking her with them to Overgaard.  Unfortunately, she becomes very vocal at 3:00 a.m. and demands attention.  We put her outside once or twice in hopes that she would become at "cat-sicle", but she would just come right back inside and start up the crying again.  She finally quieted down after an hour, and we finally went back to sleep.

During the night, it became very cold inside the Gaard-Chak.  By 5:00 a.m., when I awoke, it was down to fifty-five degrees inside of the trailer.  (Outside, it was in the thirties.)  We tried cranking up the heat but to no avail.  When Bill woke up, he discovered that the pilot light had gone out overnight, so the heater was no longer working.  It took him some time to get it working again; in the meantime, we lit a fire, bundled up in blankets, and drank coffee to warm up. 

Once it was warm again in the cabin, we got moving and started our day.  The plan for the day was to go hiking along the General Crook Trail, which was located about fifteen minutes outside of town.  We would find the trailhead along SR 260, halfway between Overgaard and Show Low, along FR 146.  The trail would take us to FR 124, at which point we could either go on to FR 107 or return to the trailhead the way we came.  It all depended on Mary, of course.

As it turned out, we got a late start that morning.  While Erika and I prepped our Camelbaks and hiking gear, Bill and John took the 4Runner out to Ace Hardware and to the grocery store to pick up some supplies for the cabin.  They didn't return for a whole hour, which meant that they had gone to one of two places: 1) the bar, or 2) off-roading.  Upon their return, we found out that they had indeed gone off-roading in the 4Runner.  They had found a great road, not far from where we were planning to go hiking, and they decided to see where it went.  No surprise there.

Equipped with our Apache-Sitgreaves Forest Service map, the five of us left the cabin to try to find the General Crook Trail.  To get there, we drove east on SR 260 until we came to FR 146, where we took a right turn.  From there, it was less than a mile to the trailhead, along a light-duty road. 

When we arrived, we found that the trailhead was not marked.  It may have been marked once, but if there had been signs, they would have been obliterated in the Rodeo-Chedeski fire of 2002.  In fact, the whole area was still scarred with charred trees.  It had been four and a half years since that human-caused fire destroyed nearly 500,000 acres of forest land in the Sitgreaves National Forest.  This was going to be our first time hiking through that burned landscape.

We parked the 4Runner on a patch of bulldozed dirt along the side of the trail, about a quarter of a mile off of FR 146.  Once we were geared up, we started hiking along the long, flat dirt road that was the General Crook Trail.

The trail proved to be rather easy and flat, occasionally rising and falling with the contour of the land.  It was very exposed, though: this was not a trail that could be done during the summer.  Even on this cold autumn morning, we found ourselves stripping off layers of clothing less than fifteen minutes into our hike.

We spent most of that hike marveling at the destruction all around us.  Where there was once a forest of ponderosa pines was now nothing more than a vast field of charred sticks still waiting for their turn to either fall over or be chopped down.  As we drew closer to FR 124, we began finding spots of trees that had not been touched by Rodeo-Chedeski, which showed the selectiveness of the fire. 

That was also when we got lost.  It was near one of these patches of green forest that we turned off of the main trail and onto a side road.  We weren't sure that this was the right trail, but supposedly, it was going in the right direction.  Unfortunately, we didn't realize that we had been diverted off of the right trail until we came to FR 124 and could no longer find the trail.

That was when we split up and went about looking for the trail.  I went north on FR 124 and found the trail, while the others cut through a meadow with the same result.  Unfortunately, we killed a half an hour looking for the trail...and now, it was almost 11:00 a.m.: meltdown time.  That meant that Mary was done hiking for the day.  Bill and John, on the other hand, were already on their way towards FR 107 along the General Crook Trail. 

Fortunately, we still had cell signal along the trail (after all, we weren't far from SR 260), so we coordinated a plan over the phone.  The plan was, I would return to the car on FR 146; Mary and Erika would remain on FR 124 and wait for me to retrieve them.  John and Bill would continue on towards FR 107 and wait there for us to pick them up.

The plan went off without a hitch; it took me about 20 minutes, hiking at an average pace of 3.5 miles an hour, to arrive back at the 4Runner.  (I know this because John gave me the GPS to ensure that I didn't get lost.)  Once I got there, I threw my Camelbak into the back and drove away.  Five or ten minutes later, I turned onto FR 124 and picked up Erika and Mary, who were waiting patiently for me just feet off of the main highway.  Another five or ten minutes later, we found John and Bill sitting along the side of FR 107.

Having finished our hike (more or less), we decided that it was time for lunch.  We drove back into Overgaard and stopped for lunch at The Cabin, which was about a mile from the Gaard-Chak.  There, we ate greasy food and drank beer while we rested from our hike.

The rest of the day turned into a lazy afternoon of shopping at the Dollar Store and relaxing at the Gaard-Chak.  Mary even took a much-deserved nap in our bed, while I enjoyed some quiet time next to the fireplace.  Soon, the lazy afternoon turned into a lazy evening spent inside the warm cabin, watching movies and working either jigsaw or crossword puzzles.  That night, we all retired early, one at a time...

The next morning, once again, we were all up before the crack of dawn. 

Our plan for the day, after doing our cleaning in the Gaard-Chak, was to take a drive through the areas surrounding Heber-Overgaard: areas that we had not explored before. 

We left the cabin around 9:30 a.m. to begin our exploration.  The first part of our journey took us to the towns of Taylor and Snowflake, which are about a half an hour northeast of Heber-Overgaard on SR 277.  This area lies in the high grasslands of the state, and the highway runs parallel to the railroad tracks.  There are several industrial complexes along the way, next to the tracks, including a paper mill.

Upon arriving in Snowflake, we stopped at a bar on the edge of town for a drink.  The bar had just opened for the day, and already there were two men seated at a table, drinking coffee and watching a football game.  The two men were obviously best friends, but one of them was wearing a Minnesota Vikings jersey; the other, Green Bay Packers.  They were very friendly; and despite their obvious difference in team loyalty, they did agree with us that the Arizona Cardinals were the worst team ever.  We watched the game with them for half an hour; then, we left to finish our journey.

We continued our drive into Snowflake, which we found to be very lovely.  It was clean and well-groomed, with beautiful homes, gleaming churches, and thriving businesses.  The community of Taylor borders on Snowflake, just south of the junction with SR 77.  In Taylor, we found that there was a Wal-Mart, grocery stores, and even car dealerships: definitely not the small town that we thought it to be!  John liked the two towns right away and said that he wouldn't mind owning property there. 

Once we were in Taylor, we began looking for Papermill Road, which would take us back to SR 277.  At first, we couldn't find it, and we ended up having to turn around several times until we found it.

On the way back to Heber-Overgaard, we decided to take a side-trip through the small community of Aripine, located off of FR 332, between SR's 277 and 260.  We had seen the sign many times, but had never taken the time to figure out what exactly is in Aripine.  What we discovered was that, it was just a community of about 10-20 nice houses.  That's it.

It was lunchtime when we left Aripine, so we continued on FR 332 until we came out on SR 260, just east of Overgaard.  As we drove west back into town, we stopped at an Italian-American restaurant in the Old Western-style strip mall next to the Bison Ranch development.  There, we watched the rest of the Cardinals game while we celebrated the end of our lovely four-day holiday weekend.

After lunch, we went back to the Gaard-Chak to pack up our stuff; it was time for us to head home.  Before we could leave, though, we had to winterize the cabin, to keep the pipes from bursting when it dropped below freezing outside.  We also had to remove all of the perishable food from the refrigerator, as it would be a while before anyone would be back up there again.  There were lots of Thanksgiving leftovers to be doled out, too!

It took us about an hour to finish the preparations; but once they were done, we were ready to hit the road.  With that, we said our good-byes to Bill and Erika then drove away...

Return to Naked in the Woods.