Ropes and Ladders

I'm back from Hawaii, so I figured I'd better finish up some of my hiking blogs from earlier this year before I start on the Hawaii ones. So, here are some of the adventures we went on in January:

Payson

We spent a weekend at the cabin in mid-January. We planned to do a lot of hiking, but we didn't get much farther than the fish hatchery. We did see some eagles hanging out and watching the fish, however:

Devil's Chasm

The following week, we decided to hike Devil's Chasm in the Sierra Ancha Wilderness. Getting to the Sierra Ancha Wilderness itself wasn't particularly easy. It took a couple of hours to drive there. We had to go through Globe, by Roosevelt Lake, and then take a long dirt road to the trail head. I definitely needed my ginger gum for that one! The main attraction at Devil's Chasm is a set of ruins at the end of the trail, if you can get there.

The trail is very difficult. The ground is soft and breaks away almost instantly when you take a step. The rocks on the trail are also unstable and move if you try to use them to hold your body weight instead. There are some very steep sections of the trail that are nearly impossible to climb without two walking sticks or crawling on your hands and knees because of the soft soil conditions. There are also fallen trees, leaves, and debris everywhere that make the "trail" very hard to find. All in all, it's the perfect place to hide a dwelling if you don't want anyone to be able to reach it.

It is, however, beautiful:

The trail follows a canyon with sheer, beautiful cliff walls and picturesque creek (even picturesque when it's dry for the winter).

The view out of the canyon.

It was pretty easy to see where the large boulders at the bottom of the canyon came from...

Part of the trail. You can see the soft soil in this picture.

A little while down the trail, the canyon narrowed and we had to start walking up the creek. This is where the trail became really fun in my opinion. You'll see why in the next few pictures.

The view out of the canyon from the same spot.

My favorite picture of the trip. The view out of the canyon after we climbed out of that spot.

There are several spots along the trail that require climbing with ropes that have been left there by previous hiking groups. This spot wasn't particularly treacherous at this time of year because the water was barely flowing, but somehow the rope was still soaking wet (and freezing!). I wasn't too happy about that.

Devin and James at the same spot.

Gabby climbing up.

Since we were basically climbing up the creek at this point, the trail was basically a set of steps. Perfect for taking pictures.

The view up the sides of the canyon. It was beautiful and green right here. It's hard to tell because of the white sky.

Unfortunately, we didn't have time to make it to the ruins on this trip. We decided to camp the next time so that we had more time to hike. Me at the turn around point:

Another spot with the ropes. We had to climb this on the way up too. It involved climbing through a small crevice behind a boulder after climbing up a rope, carrying a heavy pack. The crevice we had to crawl through was cramped enough that I even had a hard time getting through.

The rock that the rope was tied around.

Bill helping one of our other group members out of the hole.

Bill helping again.

The view as the sun started to set.

Devin and I climbing back up the trail.

Peppersauce Cave

I spent most of February dealing with the flu and the aftermath of the flu, but before that, we went on an adventure in Peppersauce Cave. This is a cave near Oracle that seems to be a popular spot to do some weekend exploring (I can't believe I never knew about it when I was in Tucson!). It's down a dirt road in the middle of a hilly area at the base of the Catalinas.

It was my first time caving and it seemed like a pretty good place to get started. Our friend Shyanne acted as our tour guide and showed us around. It's a well-travelled cave, and unfortunately isn't treated well by many explorers (trash, graffiti, broken stalactites), but there are some very cool things to see. In the main room, there is an underground lake that you can climb to on some ladders. If you venture farther into the cave, there are some very tight holes to climb through (take off your backpack, push it through, and dive in head first) and wet, rocking ladders to climb over (with nothing but smooth, wet hand and footholds to land on). We went all the way to the Book Room, which involved inching along in a thin, slanted crevice, uphill for about 60 feet. We had to use our arm and leg strength along this whole stretch to keep from getting stuck while carrying our packs since they couldn't fit on our back. I felt like I had taken a yoga class afterward! Overall, it was a cool cave and I hope to go back soon.

 Taking a rest in the Book Room. You can see some of the graffiti on the wall.

Snow!

Last week Rock (one of the guitar players in my band) wanted to have a barbecue. The leaves are turning colors and it is just starting to snow in northern Arizona, so Bill and I suggested that we have the barbecue up in Payson. Bill and I headed up on Friday. Rock and his family, Devin (the other guitar player in my band) and his friend Daniel, and Devin’s parents came up on Saturday.

When Bill and I drove up on Friday night, there was no snow on the ground. It was cold and windy and a storm seemed to be blowing in. On Saturday morning we woke up to freshly falling snow. It kept falling for a couple of hours. 

Bill walking up the cabin driveway.

The cabin front yard.

The cabin.

My car covered in snow :)

The backyard of the cabin.

Bill took these awesome pictures of the squirrel and birds on the bird feeder.

The back of the cabin when the clouds parted.

We met Rock, Melinda (Rock’s wife), and their three kids at the Safeway down in Payson and drove back up to the cabin. As soon as we got to the cabin, the kids started playing in the snow. The snow ball war didn’t stop until halfway through Sunday!

The snow ball carnage.

While we were waiting for Devin, Daniel, and Devin’s parents, we headed down to the Tonto Fish Hatchery:

Leaves frozen to the sidewalk.

One of the trees that had turned colors next to the creek.

Some of the fish in a young stage in one of the tanks.

Beautiful view from outside the fish hatchery visitor's center.

The different buildings in the picture are the holding tanks for trout in different stages of growth.

If you look closely, you can see several big trout in this pond. You can buy food to feed these ones and they all swarm around the food in the water. This pond is right next to the creek where they release some of the trout for fishing. They also use the trout they raise here to stock a lot of the lakes in Arizona and the Lee's Ferry area of the Colorado river up by the Grand Canyon.

The creek right by the hatchery with snow.

A picturesque view on the way back to the cabin.

Everyone else arrived right when we got back from the hatchery, and Bill got to grilling steaks:

Daniel and Devin by the grill. 

A tree that had turned colors for fall down the street.
The two below are Bill's. Notice anything interesting in the first picture? Comment below if you see it :)

When the snow started to melt, it fell in giant sheets off the roof onto the front planter area. This then became premium snow ball ammunition :)

After a day out in the cold we had an awesome dinner:

This corn was made using this crazy shucking technique found in this video:

                         

Steak!

Devin's mom made a potato cheese bake. Oh, how I love cheese! She also made an AMAZING Tiramisu, which I unfortunately did not photograph.

After a huge dinner we took a walk and then came back for some jammage. I played the pan flute. Yep. Anybody who took woodwind tech with me in college probably has a good idea of how that went…

I also played the box drum. Literally a drum made out of the space heater box. Drumming is also not my forte either LOL.

Devin and Daniel jamming.

The cabin seemed to be the room without time that night. I’m not sure if it was the overcast, snowy weather, the early winter dark, or just the mountain air, but we all kept thinking it was 11 p.m. when it was really seven. Time passed incredibly slowly. Somehow, though, we still managed to stay up until around one in the morning.

The next morning, we woke up and had elk roast for breakfast (AWESOME!!). After that we headed up to the Mogollon Rim.

Elk roast!

A snowman someone had built up on the rim.

The rim with snow.

The view of the highway below.

Ice crystals on a tree.

One of the semi-frozen ponds by the roadway.

The rim is extremely windy all year round. Devin and Daniel decided to walk with their backs to the rim so they could hide their faces from the freezing cold wind.

One of the strange twisted and stunted Ponderosa Pines on the rim. The trees closest to the edge are shaped by the constant wind.

The same tree in July.

Frozen grass.

White trees against a gray sky.

Part of the path along the rim was frozen.

Some more gnarled trees.

A close up of the ice on a Ponderosa Pine.

 Snow ball fight in the parking lot of the vista point.

 Rock and Daniel

 Rock just threw a snow ball at Devin.

 Devin throwing a snow ball at Daniel.

The rim road.

I was sad to go back home, but happy to be warm. Devin's parents headed back to Phoenix on Saturday night, so Devin and Daniel had to cram in my Honda Fit on the way back. In order to fit everyone and all of their stuff in the car, Daniel and Devin had to sit in the back seat first while we handed them things to cram around their feet, between them, and on their laps. In the picture, they have two guitars laying across them. After loading them in, I sat in the passenger seat and Bill gave me things to cram around my feet. That's the trash on my lap to take down to Payson. Awesome. I think it's time for a roof rack!

It's a Honda "Fit." Har har.

Daniel

Devin