We needed to go hiking. 

On Saturday, December 16, we had the whole day to ourselves: no family commitments, no work, nothing.  So, we said that this would be a good day to go hiking.

John suggested that we do the Upper First Water Creek Trail, a trail that he had done as a solo hike about a year ago.  He knew that we weren't going to be able to do the whole seven miles of the loop (not with Mary anyway), but we could at least try to hike three or four miles.

The Upper First Water Creek Trail is a trail that John found in the Hiker's Guide to the Superstitions, by Jack Carlson.  Part of this loop hike follows along the Lost Dutchman Trail #104, which we have hiked as part of the Black Mesa Loop, the LaBarge-Whiskey Springs Loop, and the Marsh Valley Loop.  (I'm probably forgetting one or two; we've spent a lot of time hiking in the Superstitions.)  The rest of the trail, however, requires bushwhacking and route-finding skills.  At the sixth creek crossing, we would leave the established trail system and continue down First Water Creek. 

Before we could go hiking that morning, we would first need to purchase a Tonto Pass.  A couple of months ago, it was announced that all of the self-pay fee stations had been removed from the various trailheads and campgrounds.  They were replaced by the Tonto Pass, which you had to purchase in advance and display in your vehicle while parked at the trailhead.  It seemed to be a good idea...

...until we actually had to purchase one...

Now, it probably would have been a good idea if we had just looked on the internet before we left the house that morning.  Then, we would have known where to go to purchase one of these passes before we ended up taking the driving tour of East Mesa in search of a store that sold them.  It took us nearly an hour to find a place that sold them.  We tried a Basha's, a couple of gas stations...nothing!  We were about ready to give up and just pay the fine for being caught without one...when we came to a Circle K at the junction with SR 88!  And in the window was displayed a sign that read, "Tonto Passes Sold Here"!  We were saved!

Once we had our Tonto Pass, we continued on towards the First Water Trailhead, where we would begin our hike.  To get there, we took SR 88 to FR 78, where we turned right.  From there, it was another 2.6 miles along a good road to the trailhead.  At the end of the road was a very large parking area, large enough to hold about fifty cars, which was important when you consider just how popular that particular trailhead is.

We arrived early enough that there were still many parking places available, which meant that the trails would not be very crowded that morning.  No matter, though; where we were going, we probably weren't going to see a whole of lot people.  Many people tend to stick to the established, well-marked trails when hiking in the Superstitions; the Upper First Water Creek Trail was not one of those trails.

Our hike began around 9:00 a.m., as we stepped onto the Second Water Trail.  We stayed on this trail for only about a tenth of a mile; when we reached the first trail junction, we took the Dutchman Trail #104, which we would follow for about a half-mile.  During that stretch of trail, we would cross First Water Creek six times; these crossings were all very easy to do, because First Water was without water.  The creek will typically have water during the wet season; this year, it had been very dry.

At the sixth creek crossing, we kept following the Dutchman Trail for about 200 yards; then, we left the trail and began following First Water Creek.  Up to that point, our hike had been very easy; here, it got interesting.

As I said before, hiking along First Water Creek would require some bushwhacking and route finding skills.  What I left out was that it would require some boulder hopping as well.  At first, we managed to get through the creek rather easily, as the boulders were not that big.  We were also able to find some game trails that paralleled the creek, so we followed those when we could.  Then, as we progressed further upstream, it became more and more difficult.

During the hike, I managed to injure myself, when I banged my knee on a very large boulder while I was trying to maneuver past it.  I didn't think that I had banged it that hard, but it left quite a bruise...and it hurt a lot!  Despite that, we did keep going.

The boulder-hopping proved to be exhausting for Mary; by the time we stopped for a lunch break, she was just wiped out.  She wanted to take a nap, but when she tried to lie down and do it, she couldn't sleep.  That could only mean one thing: the 11:00 meltdown...

...And that's inevitably what happened...

At first, we thought Mary was going to carry on for the rest of the hike.  No matter what, we couldn't get her distracted from her "distress".  After some time, we were able to make a game of the hike, and soon she forgot how tired she was. 

So how far did we get that day?  We hiked in about two miles before we stopped to eat lunch.  John pointed out that we were just shy of O'Grady Canyon, where the creek forked.  He said that, in order to complete the loop, we would have had to take O'Grady Canyon, not continue along First Water Creek.  We weren't going to get that far, though.  Instead, we were going to turn back and return to the trailhead the way we came.

Our return hike was, of course, more of the same: boulder-hopping back down the creek, until we met up with the Dutchman Trail again.  That was when we started seeing people again...and, as usual, the trail was popular that afternoon.  We passed by a multitude of hikers on the way back down the Dutchman Trail.  I guess that meant that it was good time for us to leave.

We arrived back at the trailhead around 1:00 that afternoon; and as soon as we could see the kiosk again at the top of the Second Water Trail, Mary was much happier.  It made the last fifteen minutes of that hike a lot easier.  As soon as the 4Runner was in sight, Mary made a mad dash for it so that she would be the winner; I guess she got her energy back!

Of course, despite that, she fell asleep on the way home!  And with that ended another adventure in the wild...

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