Hiking Wind Caves

7/10/10

Today a friend and I hiked the Wind Caves at Usery Park located south on Ellsworth Rd. We began our hike shortly after 8 with a cloud covered sky and slight chances of rain. A beautiful day for a hike and some geocaches. Shortly after the hike began, we were in for a pleasant surprise. There on the path was a desert tortoise! How often does one get to see one in the wild? This was a rare opportunity so we stopped to take pictures and watch it on its way. After sitting for a while it got comfortable with us around and so it got up and moved along. It moved quite a bit faster than what I had thought they could move. Here is a short video clip of the tortoise walking down the trail. We named him Terry The Tortoise. 

We left it on its way and continued on ours. Almost to the wind caves we found one small geocache in a rock crevice. We reached the wind caves and continued up to the peak. After some rock climbing and rocks covered in gnats, we were near the top looking for another geocache.We found it and then headed back down a different way. Doing a little rock climbing down and some more hiking we reached the wind caves again only to leave once more on the trek back to the car. On the way down I found another large geocache and was looking for a small one that I couldn't find. I did see a few holes in the rocks that could have been desert tortoise dens. Walking back to the trail led me to another discovery, however. A snake slithering through the bushes. Immediately I determined it was not a rattlesnake so I followed it around from bush to rock to bush. As I was getting my camera out, ready to take a picture, it went under some rocks and then I could not find it again. I saw the whole body at one point and my thought was that it was a whipsnake. After getting home and looking it up, it was in fact a Sonoran whipsnake (check out Sonoran whipsnake or another picture for more details). I also noticed on the way back that almost every Saguaro cactus with lots of fruit on top had a white-winged dove perched on top eating the fruit. As we walked by a bird would fly off almost every one. Back at the parking lot, finding one more geocache would end our day's adventures. Just in time too as the sun finally poked through the clouds and we started getting toasty.    

Dirt Bike Riding: Florence Junction

7/09/10

Today my brother, friend and I went dirt bike riding near Florence Junction on the way to Florence. It was a nice day with some cloud cover. Shortly after riding I noticed some snake tracks in the path. I made note of where they were so we could check on it on our way back. Heading on we saw two large jackrabbits running near the trail and then off into the desert. As we were riding, I noticed that the prickly pare cactus had its fruits in bloom. All year my brother and I have been waiting for them to bloom after reading that they are good to eat. So now was our chance. You have to be careful with these because they have many glochids on them, each with tons of tiny hairs that are a big nuisance if they get in your fingers. So we carefully removed one from the end of the pad. They are redish pink in color on the tops of the green pads. I cut a hole in one and squeezed the oozing liquid and seeds out into my mouth. I sucked the liquid from the many seeds and then spit the seeds out. The flavor was pretty sweet and good. Because there are so many seeds they are a little annoying but not bad. They remind me of pomegranate because of the seeds. And a good source of food if you are lost out in the desert at this time of the year. I had read that they taste like kiwis and watermelon but my brother thought they tasted like cherries. I think they all have some credence. We took three with us and headed back to the truck to put it in the cooler. 

On the way back we stopped at the snake tracks. We followed it into some holes around a creosote plant and out of another. There were three different tracks either going from a hole along the path to the desert, or the desert to a whole, or right across the trail. But there was no sign of the snake. It was most likely a rattlesnake or a gopher snake. Both would easily eat the Round-tailed Ground Squirrels in the area. After some more riding and grabbing some more prickly pare fruit to take home we called it a day. 

Cabin: Day 5

7/05/10

Today, with no fishing in our plans, we slept in until the sun was thoroughly warming our beds through the windows. After eating some breakfast, my friend, brother and I left for Munds Park to find some geocaches there and along the way. We easily found 3 geocaches, all in ammo cans, before reaching Munds Park. They just required a little short hiking on relatively flat ground to reach them. Once reaching Munds Park we stopped by Odell Lake. This lake is a private lake for the residents there. So we parked along the street and started looking around. There were many muggles (those who don't know about geocaching) out fishing so it was difficult to look too much. But we did finally find it in a log. It was a nice very small cache, the size of a small pill container and camouflaged. 

Then we headed further in to the park near the I-17. We stopped at a gas station and crossed the street to where the geocache was supposed to be. The clues said it was in plain sight but well camouflaged and close to the golf sign. Our friend and I looked in a tree and I jokingly said, "Look! Here it is. It's well camouflaged...it's a rock." There was a rock in the branches of the tree. Of course that wasn't the geocache so we kept looking. Then as we were about to head back across the street to the truck, I said, "You know what guys? It's probably in one of those fake rocks that people put their keys in." Well there were a bunch of rocks and broken pieces of concrete at the base of the stop sign so my friend kicked one over as we headed back to the car. We turn around to see my brother crouched down displaying a shocked face. It was there in that rock. There was a small screw on cap on a small cylinder mounted inside the rock. What an amazing find. We were very excited about that one. Then we headed up to find one more back in some neighborhoods before heading back to the cabin to pack up and head home. 

And thus ends our cabin adventures. 

Cabin: Day 4

7/04/10

The day started for me and my brother at 4:30 in the morning. We got ready and were out the door at 5. Driving by the field by the cabin, we saw that the elk from the night before were still there. As we got to Upper Lake Mary, there was an elk just off the side of the road. We turned around and drove by it slowly taking some pictures. It wasn't scared at all and just kept walking, eating and looking at us. As you can see the elk was a nice velvet. After taking some pictures we headed down a little further to a pull off to go fishing. The sun was still behind the trees and we began our day of fishing. The plan was to be done and back to the cabin by 10, hopefully with some fish.

As we began to fish, we noticed lots of flies of some sort flying around and little fish picking them off the top of the water. The small fish were probably perch and they were jumping at any fly that hit the water. On a few occasions we noticed a larger splash which may have been a pike grabbing itself a morning snack. Our hopes were high, seeing as there was plenty of food for the pike to be in the area. Pretty soon I had a small pike on my line and brought him in. Normally I wouldn't keep one as small as he was, seeing as he was probably under 2 lbs. But after fishing the day before, and that being the size of the fish we caught, we decided to keep it. Shortly after I had another fish that was slightly larger so I kept it. Just then we walked into the sunlight as the sun was slowly rising. The flies were ever more abundant in the light and the feeding fish just the same. The noise from the flies was as if a hive of bees was nearby. You could watch a fly keep bouncing off the water while several minnows followed in close pursuit. If the fly landed for too long it was a gone, followed by a small splash as the fish retreated. Just after that my brother caught one even larger than mine so he put it on his stringer. And just after that my brother pulled in another one even bigger and over 2 lbs. Then I caught another one but it was even smaller than our smallest so I let him go. So we had 5 fish before 8 and continued to fish and we arrived home before 10 like we had planned with a lovely addition to our 4th of July meal later that day.

After eating some brunch at the cabin, the whole lot of us took a hike to this burnt, dead tree. The plan was to push it over. After a couple hours of trying, mainly by a sole person's determined attempt, the tree was still standing. As this was going on, a few of us went around pushing down smaller burnt and dead trees. We had a very interesting experience in doing so, which it's story will be posted later. After all of this we headed home and had our 4th of July dinner.

After dinner my friend, brother and I went out to look for the geocache that we couldn't find the day before because it got too dark. There was also another one close by up on that hill that we wanted to find as well. We were able to drive half way up so it was a short hike to the spot and after looking for quite a while we were unable to locate it once again. Heading back to the truck we stopped by the second cache up on the hill. My friend found it giving a wild exclamation. We then headed back to the cabin, once again feeling defeated for not finding the geocache. I also realized I had lost my pen up there. Now there are two objects that seemed to be lost. 

Cabin: Day 3

07/03/10 

Once again my brother and I got up and left for another lake, Upper Lake Mary, at 7 in the morning to try to catch some fish for dinner. This time we made sure to bring food. We got out there and had 3 fish within the first hour. All about 2 lbs. We didn't want to keep anything that small because the week before that was the smallest size fish we had caught. So we would keep anything well over 2 lbs. After catching another fish the same size and letting it go we decided we should just keep the next one so we would have something to eat and then keep anything larger that we caught later. So we kept the next one I caught which was just over 2 lbs. After another 3 hours, we didn't catch any more fish but had just a few bites. We decided to call it a fishing day and look for some geocaches in the area. After fishing Lake Mary, we looked for two geocaches along the lakeside. We found one right away in a rock pile. There were many coins in there that were advertising for trackable geocoins so we took one with us. The next one we found had been there since 2001. At one point it was the 49^th oldest active geocache. So that made it exciting to find.

Next we checked out 8 more near and along Ashurst lake road. Five of them had already been found on the same day and after finding one we saw some more geocachers looking for the same one we had just been to. We went back to the two at Ashurst lake that our friends had looked for, but now we had a few more geocaches under our belt and had some more idea what to look for. So we found them both very quickly. Five of the geocaches were all from the same person in the same camo containers. In one at Ashurst lake there was a bouncy ball so we traded a fishing lure for it. After getting back to the cabin and eating some food, along with the one pike we kept, three of us decided to look for several geocaches that were near the cabin. On the short drive over to them, we saw 8 cow elk on the side of the road and then 3 deer before we reached them. Our friend had never heard of geocaching so he didn't know what to look for. My brother looked 30 feet away and saw a stump and said, “It's there!!” and ran over there, lifted the stump and there it was. My friend was shocked. “How did you know it was there!!” he yelled. Then we checked out another cache on the other side of the road. We found it fairly quickly and traded another lure for a small dinosaur toy. That way we could keep trading things by transferring them. The next one was .18 miles away straight up a mountain so we headed for it. Boy was that a hike. We describe the steepness as our toes against our shins and our chest a foot from the ground. After finally getting to the top it was getting to dark to see so we had to head back down the very steep hill, though fortunately we found the trail so it wasn't as steep. In the field right before the cabin we saw some elk grazing out in the field. It was getting dark and we could barely see them. So we took the spotlight and walked out into the field. Shining the light at them we saw more than 20 sets of eyes. They headed away from us into the tree line and we finally made it back.

Cabin: Day 2

7/02/10 

My brother and I wanted to fish Ashurst lake which was near the cabin. So we went out around 9 and walked around the entire lake fishing as we went. Right off the bat we realized we forgot to pack any food. There was a geocache right near the water so we tried to find it but had no luck so we continued fishing. --Geocaches are hidden containers around the world that people hide and post the GPS coordinates online so others can find them. It's like a huge treasure hunt. Once you find them you can tell stories about them online. There are more than 1,000,000 geocaches hidden all around the world-- After a little while with no bites, I said if we caught any pike we should trade it to some campers for some food. The goal, however, was to bring some fish home so we could eat them that night. My brother said, “What would they think if we came home and they asked if we caught anything and we said yeah...but we traded it for this granola bar....and it was good!!” Anyway, we kept fishing. We came into a very shallow cove with lots of weeds. After fishing it for a little bit and my brother getting caught on several rocks, I said it was too shallow and we should move on. But he threw in his line so I did as well. Then a 5 lb pike grabbed my lure, came to the top so I could see its back, and then spit it out!! Trying several other lures gave no other response from the fish. At the end of the cove a small pike the size of a 5 inch Rapala darted at my lure and then back down.

By this time we were getting pretty hungry. Then my brother found an unopened granola bar on the ground. It was the best Oats 'n' Honey bar ever. Then shortly after eating I had another 5 lb pike grab my line, and after coming to the top, spit it out once again!. Soon after that we were back on the other side but still down a ways from the truck. A truck drove by on the lake road with kids waving at us. It was our friends. They brought us food! We ate our fill of PB&J and some cookies and then continued fishing. We sent them out to find the two geocahces near the lake but they returned with no success either. Then I started getting lots of bites from small pike all under a pound and a half. I had one bite twice and then pulled it just out of the water before it spit it out and fell back in. Then I finally caught one after it bit twice as well. It was 8 inches long. Shortly after that, after a few more bites, I had another fish--an 11 inch pike. Then my brother saw a 5 lb pike surface and dive back down, seeing the entire body come to the top. But once again we couldn't get it to bite. Sadly this ended our day of fishing and we headed back to the cabin to have some blow gun competitions.

Cabin: Day 1

7/01/10

This last weekend, Thursday through Monday, I was south of Flagstaff near Munds Park staying in a friend's cabin. My two brothers and I stayed with some friends up in their cabin and had some fishing and hiking and geocaching adventures. Geocaching will be explained later. On Thursday we drove up to the cabin and had hot dogs cooked over the inside fire pit.

Urban Lakes: Red Mountain and Water Ranch

6/30/10

Today I tried out two urban lakes. One in the morning and the other in the evening. In the morning my brother, friend, and I went to Red Mountain Park Lake. My brother and I got there as the sun was coming up, picked a spot and started fishing. My friend was coming later. As soon as I threw in my line I had a bite and the bite continued with no fish. Finally my brother hooked one. It was a small bluegill. My friend came and after an hour we had 7 fish all together. Nothing big enough to keep. We tried a few more locations before I had to leave and my brother and friend continued to fish. They went back tot he first spot and 3 hours later they had caught a total of 51 bluegill.

That same evening at 7:00, my friend and I went to the Water Ranch lake by the greenfield library to try for some catfish with stinkbait and worms. We got there and wanted to be near the bridge on the library side but it was crowded so we went to the other side to fish. My friend caught two very small bluegills and later caught a couple crawdads. The lake was very shallow on that side and so my four pound line got caught several times on rocks and broke. Other than that we didn't get a bite so we left around 9 something. Later this weekend my friend went back during the day to look around the lake and fish and noticed a lot of dead catfish floating around the lake. I'm not sure what killed them but that might slow the catfish bite at that location.