One stormy day …

At the start of a hike up the Cave Creek trail in Spur Cross we ran into a forest service employee and got directions to some Petroglyphs in the Tonto Forest. It involved a trail that crossed Cave Creek three times. At the first crossing some of the expected stepping-stones had been washed out and the higher water had us looking down stream to find a crossing point. We crossed and worked our way back to the trail. Shortly after we entered the Forest area, our trail was washed out in several sections forcing us to slog through marsh and mud, up rock-strewn washes to get back to the trail. The last hurdle was a three-foot high bank that we found guarded by a pretty good-sized diamondback rattlesnake who seemed to think he owned that patch. We counted eight rattles and decided he was right.  We detoured and got back on the trail and made our way to the second crossing, which was now a thirty-foot expanse of water! So that put the Petroglyphs on the future hike schedule. We’ll wait for the Creek to recede a little before we try that again!

Other than lots of exercise, my new walking stick got a good field test. It was a great help in dealing with the very slippery mud and grasses that had replaced our expected trail. I bought it at REI, which calls it the “REI Hiker Vibra Stop Staff” and is made by Komperdell of Austria.