I woke up around 7:30 and then decided to lay in bed until about 8. I knew we had a lot to do and to make the most of our day, I finally got out of bed and got ready. I used restroom, peeled some of the burnt skin off of my face...it was getting gross, packed up my stuff into my suitcase and set it outside the door in the hallway, for staging. Mom took a shower and then got ready, and her stuff all packed up. I took the sheets and pillowcases off my bed and pillows, so Lisa didn't have to do it and put the linens into the laundry room. I did that for Mom's bed too. I saw that Lisa was outside picking up dog poo. I went outside to join her and talked about a bunch of random things for about a half hour...mostly about wedding stuff for next summer. She was excited for us. I sure hope that their schedule worked with the wedding date so they could come.
Mom and Tony came out to join us, then Tony went back inside the house to start breakfast. He asked us how we would like our eggs, we said scrambled. We sat at the table with the Ricon Mountains in the distance and ate scrambled eggs, the rest of the Danish ring from Trader Joe's, bagels, strawberries and chocolate milk. It was tasty. We continued chatting for the next hour or two. Tony showed me his car, the storage in the garage and kitchen (I was super jealous of their house and all the room they had). They said it was super cheap to retire in Arizona rather than in Washington and it definitely got me thinking of what we were going to do when we reached retirement age. I saw that our cooler leaked and got my backpack wet and the floor had puddles. I cleaned it up and stuck my backpack outside to dry in the sun. We chatted a little bit more as I packed up the rental car.
My backpack kinda dried in the short amount of time it was out there but better than nothing, so I put everything back in it and took it out to the rental car. I took a couple pictures of their house and a picture of Tony's car because it was cool, and I wanted to show Dad when we got home.
We said our goodbyes and thanked them for letting us come visit them. They said we were welcomed back anytime we would just have to let them know when, so they would be home instead of on vacation somewhere. She said we were great guests, and no one has ever taken their linens off their beds and put them in the laundry room. I told her I do that just about everywhere I go. She told us to drive safe and to enjoy the rest of our trip.
We drove through Vail and headed back towards I-10 but first we stopped at the local Safeway for some ice and a couple of drinks. It was a quick in and out and pulled our cooler from the trunk and piled some crushed ice into it. We rearranged our drinks and snacks that needed to stay cool and left the parking lot back towards the freeway. We were slowed up waiting for a train to get onto I-10, but we didn't have to wait that long. We merged onto I-10 west and traveled through Tucson. We didn't get to explore Tucson that much on this trip but maybe next time we visit we can.
Along the way, we chatted about some of our summer plans, Erika and Zac getting married and some other random things including a little bit about the hike we were on our way to. We followed the GPS to the Chandler/Gilbert exit, which was about 2.5 miles away when all of a sudden, we had to stop. Why were we stopping? I couldn't just look at the app on my phone because we were not in Washington. Apparently, there was a wreck about 6 miles ahead of us. When we finally got to our exit, I was so glad to be off of I-10. However, the exit was backed up a bit because of all the people exiting. We just had to be patient.
We finally got going and followed the GPS to the Bush Highway via the Usery Mountain Regional Park. This area was located in the Tonto National Forest, north of Apache Junction, and we were headed to one of the trailheads of the Bulldog Canyon. We approached the trailhead, parked around 2:00 p.m., and I got out to look at the sign. It was a permit area, and I chose not to pay the money to have the code to the gate so we could drive to where we needed to be. We were going to park and walk in even though it was going to be a 3.2-mile hike roundtrip. I told Mom to grab everything she needed, threw her hiking shoes on and she was sad she didn't have a hat to wear because the Mariner hat was packed away in the suitcase. We sprayed ourselves down with sunscreen, I put my floppy sunhat and hiking shoes on and off we went up the dirt road.
I was glad we decided to hike in because I really don't think the rental car would have made it up that dirt road. There were a lot of low spots and I think the car would have had a lot of trouble. You definitely need a truck or a vehicle with a high clearance. About a quarter of a mile in, we found an adidas visor someone had lost. Mom didn't care, she picked it up and wore it, I laughed, but she was glad to have a hat that kept the sun off of her face. We walked approximately one mile in before we had to make our own trail west out in the cacti, brush and washouts. There was no defined trail but there were caches that lead the way to GC57, which was about 0.6 mile away from the dirt road. This is where the real adventure began.
We found the parking coords to the cache, What Shall I Name It? (GC8JC8K) if we had driven a vehicle up the dirt road. That cache was an indication of where you would start hiking west, like a reference point. We decided to grab the cache after we were done grabbing the reason why we came out there, the oldest cache in State 48!
We started heading west off the road to our first cache, West Towards 57 (GC7GJ93) and it was work getting out there because there wasn't a well-defined trail. You had to walk around brush, cacti, rocks, dips and hills. The coords were spot on which was nice. I really didn't want to be wandering around a place that you shouldn't fall on because of all the pointing things that could stab, scrape or impale you. The container was a soccer tin and had some little trinkets inside. I just signed the logbook, got my photo and put it back.
We set the next one up on my phone, Pennies From Heaven (GC480C8) and made the trek out to it, amongst the Saguaros. It was a nice hike thorough the desert because it was different than hiking out in the trees, forest and brush of the Pacific Northwest. It was a nice change of scenery. The weather was pretty mild for Arizona this time of year, but it was nice for us who haven't seen sun since last October. We arrived at ground zero and there were pennies all over the downed dry dead tree. The container was a plastic ammo can. We got our name on the logbook, got in a photo and put it back under the dead tree.
Next, was the main event and I was so excited. I've gotten the oldest caches in Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Maine and now Arizona! You can't come to the Phoenix area and not grab GC57. We got closer and closer, avoiding the scratchy brush and maybe snakes...which you had to keep your eyes peeled for. Nobody has time to be bitten by a snake, especially out in the middle of the desert. We walked around a large grouping of cacti and brush to see an ammo can hidden by a large pile of rocks. I could not believe I was at the oldest cache in Arizona. Years ago, I never thought I would be finding that cache.
We signed our names, I took several pictures of it, held it and rummaged through the contents. I did take a travel bug to bring home with me. I put everything back inside the ammo can and put it back where I found it. It took a while to stack all the rocks up around it. I looked at the map and there were a ton more out here, but we didn't have time to wander around. I used the previous caches to get us back to the dirt road, so we didn't meander off "path" too far.
It took us a little less than a half hour to get back to the dirt road. When we got there, we found the cache we saved for the way back, it was a pretty easy grab, signed our names and put it back. We walked a little more than 500 feet to Looking North (GCN6FF) on top of a pile of rocks with a decaying Saguaro. We signed the log, took a few pictures and put it back. We made our way back down the road towards the rental car.
We picked up four more caches along the way, We Proceeded On (GCHPWY), Stop and Drop (GC8E7QP), Bob (GC8HNGR) and Kevin 2 (GC8HNGK). While we walked that mile, I messaged Christin if she was available to meet up for dinner somewhere. About 20 minutes went by before I heard back from her. She said that she wasn't available because her sister in laws father passed away all of a sudden and had to leave town with her brother, so Christin was responsible for taking care of her niece and nephew who had just gotten out of school that day. She said if we were around earlier, she would have been able to hang out. It was a bummer we weren't able to connect this time around but maybe next time I am in Arizona we can make some plans that will stick. I chatted with Ben for a little bit while we walked.
We got back to the rental car, and it took us a little bit more than 2 hours to walk 4.1 miles through the desert, found nine caches and Mom got a free hat! We changed out of our hiking shoes and socks into different shoes, drank some water and then set the GPS to the closest In-N-Out. It was about 40 miles away in Tempe near the airport. Unfortunately, when we got there, I took the wrong exit and took us away from where we needed to be. I just punched in another In-N-Out and that one took us to Baseline Road near the Arizona State campus.
We pulled in and noticed this In-N-Out wasn't busy. We got in line, ordered and our food was out in a few minutes. We got the cheeseburger, fries and strawberry shake just like we did after the Marinier game earlier that week. It hit the spot after hiking in the desert. We finished our food, cleaned up, used the restroom and headed out to the closest Walmart. I wanted some Prickly Pear beer to bring home as a souvenir for my friends and myself to try. It gets added to the blueberry beer I found before we drove down to Tucson. My suitcase was going to be heavy. Yikes!
We set the GPS to the hotel address, and it took us through the ASU campus. I could not believe how spoiled these kids were! Literally anything they wanted or needed was across the arterial. That included every known fast-food joint, a Buffalo Wild Wings, a drive through beer and liquor store, weed, clubs, etc. WHAT?! You have to be rich or have a job to go to school here!
We got to our hotel around 7ish and I pulled over to let Mom out to check us in. She told me where to go and park. We were in room 132 on the bottom level which was nice. We had a lot of stuff to bring in and sort through.
Mom talked to Rhonda for a bit while I chatted with Ben. I got in a shower; Mom checked us in for our flight and then she got ready and had a quick shower. We watched Iowa beat North Carolina in women's basketball, I wrote in my journal, organized our suitcases and was disappointed that our phone service and internet sucked. We were in the middle of Tempe, near ASU, why isn't it working?!
I finally gave up and went to bed around 11 p.m., the next day was going to be a long one.
Some notes on the day:
We walked 16,328 steps which is about 6.5 miles and drove 155 miles in the rental car.
We found nine caches of those nine, all were traditionals and one was the oldest cache in Arizona. I took care of the 9/2000 square on my Jasmer grid and only have three more to get.
We hiked 4.1 miles in the desert.
My face was peeling so bad, and I learned my lesson the next time I come down here.
I was happy to have In-N-Out one more time before going home.
I will miss the sunshine until summer finally arrives to the Pacific Northwest.
Next Adventure: Nevada/Arizona Vacation: Traveling Home from Sunny Arizona to Rainy Seattle
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