This year
Will and I had the wonderful opportunity to go on a 4th year backpacking trip
with 48 YW... 10 were from our ward. It was great! Tuesday morning
we were up early, drove the truck with 3 girls and were VERY grateful they
slept the whole way! We hiked up Horton Springs, it's about 15miles
outside of Payson (by the Tonto National Fish Hatchery). On the way up, we took a wrong turn, went
down a windy road and almost hit a cow… it was really funny… (side note: you
know how rabbits always seem to jump in the road RIGHT when you drive by, then
run alongside you before realizing they need to get out… just like that) needless to say, we did not have beef for
dinner and made it to the right place for the hike to start. 
The hike up
was beautiful with it being mostly in the shade, and some sunny spots, and
following the creek. There were a lot of
small pretty waterfalls. We stuck back
with some girls, and enjoyed the relaxing hike with lots of rest breaks… At
last, we made it to the top. It was
really nice to take my pack off… but I wasn’t dying… Defiantly not a bad hike
to backpack in to.  |
| I LOVE the headband they made for us! |
Will and I
set up camp up a steep hill about 100feet from the girls. At first I thought I was going to have to
hurt him by the end of the trip for making me hike up this KILLER hill so many
times throughout the trip, but was very grateful for it seeing how nice and quiet
it was with about 4 of us couple leaders up there, and 2 small tents of girls
who were pretty quiet. We left all the
noise down at the bottom of the hill…amazing…
The rest of the afternoon we spent setting up camp, playing games with
the girls, some certification, and a short night hike for their astronomy
class. After that, we were all grateful
to head off to our nice soft sleeping bags to get some much needed rest… for
most of us.
 |
| Chillin' on his "chair" |
Will and I
ended up getting food poisoning from the MRE’s we had for dinner so I was
throwing up all night, and Will needed too.
As soon as there was light enough outside, we packed up and told the
other leaders we were hitting the trail early, for fear that we wouldn’t make
it out. Lol. It took Will and I 2 ½ to 3 hrs to hike out
of there… I wish we had a video camera with how pathetic we looked. J I swear every 100 yards Will or I
had to stop and breathe. I don’t think I
have EVER taken so many rest periods on a hike ever, or total in my life! I am very grateful we left early because it
was a lot cooler hiking out which helped, and we made it to the car about 40min
before the rest of the girls showed up, so we were able to take a quick nap
which helped a lot. I am sad to say, it
took ALL the girls no more then 1 ½ hrs to pack out… I am very glad we left
early so they weren’t stuck waiting for us.
The rest of
the day seemed to go better. Will and I
got more energy, but never feeling a 100% and sitting down whenever we
could. We took the girls over to R bar C
Ranch where they went repelling and swimming.
Will and his brother in law took over long repel, and I was the only
girl so I had the fun task of donn/doffing all the girls harnesses. It was fun to see how they were all
different. Some were scared to go down…sat
and watched for a long time…. Then finally went down, took off the harness and
got as quick as they can off the cliff.
They others who really liked it went up to the long repel and had more
fun cuz they weren’t scared.
After that
we drove the girls up to Taylor Ranch and headed home ourselves for some much
needed sleep. After 10 hrs of sleep we
were feeling much better the next day and were starting to get our appetites
back. Besides the food poisoning, it was a really
fun trip! I would defiantly recommend
the hike. Even for a nice day hike it’s about
3 ½ miles in, and very quick hiking out.
So pretty! I know AZ can be
really hot at times and we don’t see a lot of green where we live, so it was
fun to go up among all the green. It
kind of reminded me of NE following along the creek and green foliage. Only, in NE there aren’t rocks on the trail :)
