Well it was an eventful trip to say the least. It was about a 2 hr drive to
get to the trail head of our desired location, plus an additional 30-40 min
off road to our camping spot, which we had to change because they no longer allowed camping on the spot i had always camped at. Had a little sprinkling on the way up. After setting up camp, we headed to the highest peak where you can see all the major mountain ranges in Arizona literally hundreds of miles away. At this location was also some stone age furniture that is pretty cool to see. From there we headed back to camp and got ready
for to do some fishing to finish out the day before dinner. Sadly, the streams were so low that we were unable to fish. We ended up back at camp and did some nature walking and target practice around camp. After steak dinner and
having fun around the campfire we hit the sack, this is where it took an interesting turn of events. We ended up being stalked by mountain lion throughout the night, seeing those glowing green cat eyes at between 20 40
yards is pretty crazy. We fired a warning shot hoping to scare them off since it was pitch black and we werent sure of our background we didnt want to fire direct shots at them unless they came too close and endangered our lives. We ended up taking turns keeping watch throughout the night as they wouldnt leave our camp alone. Looks like all the firearms i brought were very much needed.:biggrin1:
The next days light was greeted with a smile of relief. After breakfast we headed out to hike a very steep slate rock ridden mountain. The top was only about 100 yards up, but took us about an hour to summit. At the top are indigenous ruins. I was the first to reach and unfortunately the only to see the ruins. Our hike took our 2nd turn of events, my son who was right behind me stepped into a bee's nest which was under some rock. He was immediately attacked by the bees, we all got 5-10 stings, but my son received over 50. I immediately commanded our party to quickly head back down as the bees were chasing us. It was a dangerous situation getting down that mountain quickly and safely. We headed back into closest town , doing what we could with first aid kits while also trying to get service for 911.
They met us about halfway which was about 45 min after the incident.
Spent about 5 hours at the hospital. Thankfully he was not allergic or it would most likely have been fatal. My trooper of a son wanted to finish out the camping trip. So after getting the ok from the Dr., we headed back to camp. We finished the daylight out with some survival training. That night the mountain lions were non existent, very quite night just some elk bugling.
After packing up camp and leaving it cleaner than we found it, we headed for our last hike. Since we basically lost a day because of the bees, we were unable to hike to the canyon i wanted to show everyone. we hiked to the bottom of the waterfall and spent some time down there. I built a stone pile at the top of the water fall in memory of my best friends father who showed me this camping spot and who passed away a couple years back. The waterfall was gorgeous and cold, we all rinsed off the last few days.
Last we found a good spot for some longer distance target practice with the rifles and finished off the trip with some mexican food at one of our favorite hometown spots.
Pics to come.
