Friday night Clarence had a CPR class to attend in Snowflake, we we packed up, ate a wonderful meat at Evas and I went to the temple while he went to his class. It was a good session, and I left feeling pretty good. I picked up Clarence and we drove for several hours to Roosevelt Lake area. About 11:30 we set up our tent and sacked out for the night.
The Next morning we got up early and hiked a large hill to glass from. We could see a long ways on this hillside. Although we didn't see any javelina, we did manage to see several of these beauties.
Coues Deer. They are often called the Grey Ghost. I can see why too! We would spot them with the binos and then they would just seem to disapear! Coues deer are little deer that are only found in a couple of states in the US and parts of Mexico I believe. They weigh around 90 lbs and are tiny! But they are sure pretty to watch.
After a couple of hours of glassing, Clarence invited me to go on a hike with him. I had surgery a couple of weeks prior, but I was feeling pretty good and I wanted to see what I could do. Just a small hike he said. About 3 hours if we hustle. He gave me the option of going with him or reading a new book that I brought along. I really thought about it for a long time, and in the end I decided to go hike. Hind sight is always 20/20.
We left around 10:40. After hiking across the hill we had to go into a ravine to get down to the bottom of the canyon. I watched Clarence go down and thought, no problem! I can do this! I started down the ravine and ended up slipping and sliding to the bottom. Somewhere near the bottom I hit a rock and kindly lifted my pack and shirt before exposing my bare back into a cholla cactus. OUCH!
If you've never encountered cactus then good for you! If you have, then you'll know what these can do to you. I just remember falling and then looking over and realizing that I am pinned to this cactus and I can't move. I called Clarence back to help me and he was like, oh no. How in the heck am I going to do this? Luckily for me, I had dodged the worst of it and the cactus didn't penetrate the skin too thick. he VERY carefully pulled the cactus straight off my back as I about passed out. It was painful! He then carefully removed the dozens of needles that were stuck in my skin, my pants, my shirt, and my pack. I had the option of turning back then, but I didn't. After putting water on my back and making sure all the needles were out we continued our little hike.
We had to pass a stream by jumping rocks and I found out that I can't jump as far as Clarence can. The last rock was a little too far and it left me in the river with wet feet. Juuuust great.
We went through some CRAZY rough country, encountered a cool frog, and ended up getting all scratched up by stickery trees and shin daggers, and had to make our way through LOTS of manzenita. We found 2 springs and some beautiful country. I figured out about half way through the hike that I should have stayed back and read my book. My left side was killing me, and my feet just couldn't seem to stay away from the cactus! But complaining wouldn't have hlped me get back to the truck, so I sucked it up and made the best of it. We both finally made it back to the truck (after falling in the stream AGAIN) tired and old. What I thought was going to be a 3 hour hike turned into almost a 6 hour hike! BUT I made it. I survived. And I will never go back there again. Clarence could hunt that land all he wants, but I have no desire to tromp through the cactus and thorny bushes to sit on a spring that may or may not be used by the deer. No thanks, it's ALL yours honey!
But we will be heading back kinda close to that area this weekend for our javelina hunt. I hope it's gonna be fun! Ethan will hopefully get to go with us if he can get his grades up. And this time I will try to stay out of the cactus.
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