Day 4: Apache Junction- Phoenix Arizona- The end of the journey

The morning of January 7th: Heather and Christi-Lynn "rise and shine" at 5:30 am with surprising vitality after yet another lovely night in the suburban. Why are they awake at this dark and windy hour? Why, to climb in the dark! The goal would be sunrise on the summmit, but as you will soon realize, the morning had much more in store for these intrepid hikers than even they could have anticipated. They made their breakfast in the shelter of the campground bathroom and then gathered their wits and their headlamps and headed off into the drizzly and black night.

The beginning of the trail lead through gently sloping desert terrain with a wide, well-groomed trail. After about one mile of this gentle terrain, they reached a sign that reminded them they were about to enter wilderness territory. They had an initial goal of reaching the basin, about 2 miles and 1000 feet of elevation, with hopes of reaching the actual summit, another 1 mile and additional 800 feet of elevation. As they continued to climb, the well-groomed trail gave way to- shall we say- no trail? It seems that the well mannered rangers of arizona are loathe to violate their wilderness with too many blazes. Indeed, Heather and Christi-Lynn were often at a loss to see, as the dark lifted- where exactly they were supposed to go. They found themselves staring curiously at patches of white on rocks- is it lichen? is it paint? what might it mean, if it is a blaze?

Somehow they continued to follow the canyon up, eventually reaching the basin, an area where one could imagine large volumes of water flowing out towards phoenix in a heavy rainstorm. Never ones to enter lightly into adventure, they re-checked their map and noted that "average" hikers were cautioned to not hike beyond the basin. This left Heather and Christi-Lynn with a difficult question- are they average hikers? or are they- Above Average?

Needless to say, they continued on. As they did, day light was upon them but it became very clear that there would be no sunrise on january 7th. The clouds and fog grew thicker around them as they struggled over the large boulders, the rain grew heavier, and the wind grew stronger. At times they seemed to be climbing straight up, using their somewhat rusty rock-climbing skills (and firmly ignoring the question: How Will We Ever Get Back Down?)

They climbed up and up, the rain fell harder and harder, and the wind blew, sometimes pelting their faces painfully. At 8:30am (which they had set as their turn-around time) they crested over a last, painful, vertical cliff--- to see further climbing ahead of them. Even worse, they were not even sure how much further the summit might be. Admiting to each other that there would be no hope of any view, that the rain would only get worse, that the arizona rangers most likely had not marred their landscape with something as tawdry as a sign announcing the summit, and that they had a long, hard descent ahead of them, they posed for the obligatory photo and turned back.

They made it safely, and slowly, down the worse of the vertical drops, and then began to descend into the first canyon. As they neared the bottom, they noticed several attractive waterfalls- that had not been there before. The slight trickles of water that they had encountered on their way up the mountain were now majestic streams, pouring through the canyon. Both Heather and Christi-Lynn realized- the basin could be horrible! by this point both of them were soaked to the bone, and their boots were soaked. As they entered the basin , the waterflow was luckily not as bad as they had feared, and they were able to creep their way down bracing themselves in cracks, ankle-deep in the water.

At 10:30, they finally found themselves back in the campground, shaking and shivering. Hot showers, dry clothes, and hot chocolate solved the chills and Heather and Christi-Lynn said goodbye to the Lost Dutchman state park as the sky became blue and the clouds lifted. Heather dropped CL off in downtown phoenix to seek her fortune at a youth hostel, and Heather took off with fellow med-student Jane in tow for the blizzards of northern Arizona and Tuba City.