Family Summer Vacation

Beginning Note -

Micah read my blog and thought the descriptive words like wonderful, beautiful and amazing were underwhelming compared to what we experienced. He suggests you substitute jaw-dropping for every descriptive word you come across. I’ll agree with him.

Day #1 - Arrival

After much thought, we finally decided the best place for us to spend some family summer vacation time was the mountains of Arizona. We wanted to go someplace cool, but not too far away. When you look for cabins to rent in Arizona, they are generally located in places like Pinetop, Flagstaff and Payson. Those are all great options and we almost went with one of those popular choices…….that is, until Micah found Nutrioso. Nutrioso is the town we settled on because of its remote location in the White Mountains of Eastern Arizona, very close to the New Mexico border. As a matter of fact, “town” is a very loose term. With no main street or grocery store (you buy your bread at the tackle shop/gas station 11 miles away), I think this is one of the most rustic places we could have found and it was PERFECT for the Arnold’s!

Including our stop for lunch, the drive took us about 4.5 hours. It took us a while to find our cabin because the network of dirt county roads aren’t marked like us city folk are used to. However, when we found it, we couldn’t have been more thrilled. The cabin was beautiful – two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a stocked kitchen, washer/dryer, and my favorite feature of all…….every single window in the place had a spectacular view of God’s creation!! I couldn’t cook, walk down the stairs, do laundry or go to the bathroom without seeing trees, meadows, mountains, etc. DIVINE!

We arrived just in time as an afternoon thunderstorm rolled in and I made dinner for us. While #2 has lived through many a thunderstorm, her long-term memory prevents her from knowing this fact. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of all the lightening and thunder, but she survived. (She was completely fine for the rest of the storms that week)

Because usual conveniences are difficult to find, we had to pack in our food and anything else we might need for the week. I was able to send Micah on the 11 mile drive to the county store at one point on a hunt for bread and eggs, but didn’t make that a habit.

Oh, I almost forgot the best part – NO CELL SERVICE!!!

Off to Bed…..

Day #2 – Fishing

We had designated this day for fishing from the beginning. Based on what we could find online, we thought we’d head to Nelson Reservoir, however, the tackle shop reports pulled us in a different direction. They were reporting the fishing at Hulsey Lake as being “good” while all the other area lakes were “fair” or “poor”. Unfortunately when we arrived at Hulsey, it appeared everyone else had read the same report. We found a spot and got to fishin’. #1 cast the first line in and got a bite right away!! As a matter of fact, she pulled in the first three fish of the day within the first half hour. Have you ever seen that Sesame Street skit with Ernie and Bert where Ernie yells “Here Fishy Fishy Fishy!!” and the fish jump into the boat? It was sort of like that. Every group on the lake was pulling in fish like crazy. After only three hours, #1 had caught 4, I caught 3 and Micah caught 1. Poor Micah spent most of his time unhooking our fish and re-baiting the girls’ lines. He barely had any time to cast a line himself. We also had a funny little visitor/stalker. At one point I looked down at the fish we had caught to find a water snake trying to drag one of them away. We scared him off, but he spent the rest of the day stalking us from the reeds. We would occasionally have to throw a rock in the water to warn him again. The whole episode was so fast, I hadn’t thought of taking a picture. Darn!

Finally, satisfied we had enough for dinner, we headed home. Again, another thunderstorm rolled in as I cooked a freshly caught dinner.

Day #3 – Hiking

Since we had nothing left to prove on the fishing front, we thought we’d explore some more of the local terrain. First thing in the morning, we headed over to the ranger station for some local hiking information. I was so impressed with the information the ranger was able to provide us. She knew absolutely everything about the area! She gave us several recommendations and gave us detailed books and maps….the girls even got some Smokey the Bear gift bags full of really neat stuff. After reviewing all of our information, the choice was very difficult. There so many wonderful areas to choose from – all of them offering something a little different from the others. We finally settled on Mainstem Black River Trail. This trail was 15 miles south of the town of Alpine and then another 15 miles off the highway on back country dirt roads….another deserted wilderness area. According to the book, the trail goes 19 miles along the Black River….we would only go a couple miles in before we turned around. Both the Ranger and the signage at the trailhead all but promised us we’d see critters like Black Bears, Mexican Wolves and Elk (we were assured none of them would be aggressive toward us as long as we stayed cool). I was so excited and had my camera ready. We enjoyed a gorgeous family hike up and down the river. The girls did great - #1 walked with us, #2 in the backpack on Micah’s back and #3 on the front pack with me. We had a great time although we were so disappointed the only animals we saw were of the winged variety. Exhausted after our hike, we thought we should head back to the cabin. BUT, unable to resist the lure of everything around us, we remained on the dirt roads, taking detours for as long as possible in the quest for anything wild. No luck in finding animals, but the drive was gorgeous.

Another thunderstorm a little later that evening.

Day #4 – Rain (my favorite day)

We were supposed to spend this day fishing again. We chose Big Lake and decided to take all back roads due to our handy dandy Ranger’s map. After getting all set up, we quickly realized the fishing was not as good as it was a couple of days ago. I only caught one tiny fish. No one around us had caught anything. Also, the rain had started to roll in very early this day. The high was only about 65, so the girls were cold (Micah and I were eating the weather up and couldn’t understand what they were complaining about). So, we revised our plan. We’d hop in the truck, go off-roading for a couple hours and give the chance for the rain to clear up and the girls to nap. If it did, we’d head back over to Hulsey Lake to catch dinner. The next few hours were like heaven on earth. At one point we found what could have been the most remote road on the planet. We didn’t see a human the whole time we were on that road. We did come across a young Elk buck!!! He even posed for some pictures! It was awesome! Finally, at one point on this drive, Micah’s spirit was bursting at the seams and he said “I’m going to get out and run. You follow me.” We did.

The rain eventually let up enough for us to fish again. We put the girls in garbage bags and went back to work. Micah had to run back to the cabin to dress #3 in a warmer outfit. It was on this drive that he saw and took pictures of the bears. Oh, I was so mad since I was the one that really wanted to see the bears. Nevertheless, we have proof of their existence. The fishing that afternoon was not so great for the first couple of hours. I even dared to get a little frustrated on such a relaxing vacation. We said we’d give it just a few more minutes and then figure something else out for dinner. I guess that was all it took because we caught 4 more fish in the last 10 minutes or so. Life was good.

Headed back to the cabin to make dinner and watch the rain.

Note - #2 threw up on Big Lake. We didn’t actually see it happen. We just noticed she had something on her face and hands. This is her standard operating procedure – she gets sick and doesn’t know that it is supposed to mean anything different for her. Therefore, she doesn’t act any differently and we never know she’s sick. This is the girl that playfully asked the doctor to look in her ears too when her sister was getting a check-up only to find out she had a double ear infection! We had no idea at the time and we have no idea any other time. That’s just how she rolls. It wasn’t until Day 5 of our vacation that we were able to look back and realize something was wrong.

Day #5 – Greatest Hike EVER

Once again, our trusty Ranger’s map led us on another great adventure. This time we chose the Rose Spring Trail on the Mogollon Rim. To get there, we had to drive about 30 miles on the highway and then 45 minutes down one of the rockiest, most un-maintained back roads in the state. On the drive, #1 started throwing up. We all (including her) thought it was car sickness. Once she got onto stable ground, she thought she was feeling better, so we moved on. At the trail head is a log book. You have to sign in so “they” know if they have to come looking for you. Before we arrived, the last group to sign in was a week prior and before that, it was a month. Absolutely nobody goes out here. In a word – PERFECT! We were promised more wildlife, but the girls made sure that didn’t happen. This trail is definitely not maintained. There are fallen trees crossing it all over the place. We had to climb, duck, detour and shimmy every which way. When we stopped for our first snack, #1 wasn’t so interested, but she insisted she was still up for the walk. It was when we stopped for lunch 2 miles in that we finally realized that she was sick (and that #2 had started it the day before). So here we were, with anywhere from 1 to 3 sick children, in the middle of nowhere and no easy way to get out of it. Hhmmmmm Only thing to do was start walking back. And we did. Despite illness, all three children were incredible. They actually did it (not that they had much choice in the matter). As Micah proudly said later “My daughter can hike 4 miles in the wilderness with the stomach flu. What can yours do??” I wouldn't recommend finding out what your daughter can do in this manner.

We finally made it back to the truck, completely amazed at our God-given abilities, and headed back to the cabin. #1 threw up for the rest of the day (we grabbed some Gatorade to help keep her hydrated after our last episode and she made it through ok)

Micah and I are both in agreement that the Rose Spring Trail is the best hike we’ve ever attempted in all of our years together. We will most definitely be doing that one again.

Note – #3 never threw up, but we had evidence that she wasn’t feeling great through her mood and sleep.

Day #6 – Time to head home

Not an eventful day. We just took the morning to leisurely pack up. #1 was still sick, so there wasn’t much we could do anyway. No one wanted to go home. Even through illness, the girls had such a wonderful time and said they wanted to stay. We will definitely come back.

Note – After arriving home and getting some rest, all of the girls are over their illnesses and feeling great. They talk about our vacation like it was the greatest thing ever, so the experience wasn’t tainted.

Highlights

- While we were actually at the cabin, the girls spent their time exploring and picking wild flowers. It was a wonderful sense of freedom for me to allow my children out of my sight and not worry about where they were or what they were doing.

- Temperature – Highs ranging from 65 to 85. It was the perfect way to escape the Phoenix heat without going far

- This was a relatively inexpensive vacation. We didn’t have to fly and we packed all our food. The location made it difficult to be tempted with dinner and a movie.

- We saw lots of birds and creatures that don’t frequent Phoenix much

- There was a herd of Elk right off the highway near our cabin that came down to eat at the same time every evening

- Our cabin had a tree swing

- Wild Turkeys!

- #1’s best quote of the week – “Trout tastes like lake.”

- We found lots and lots of land for sale.