We are currently at a Comfort Inn in Silver City, NM with actual internet, so it's time to catch up on the happenings of the past week or so.
Prior to leaving Tucson, we did a day hike in West Saguaro
National Park, which is Star’s first real hike since her big fall. It was a huge success. She not only carried a 15 lb. pack halfway (half
of it water) with no problems; she completed 4.8 miles and one thousand feet of
elevation up and down.
We started our hike at 7:40 a.m. at a temperature of 68
degrees to try and beat the heat. The
Kings Canyon trail took us high up into the big cactus country to a ridge line.
The terrain was completely foreign to us.
Despite many warnings about
rattlesnakes, we did not run into any signs of them…thankfully. Even without water, the hike was fantastic,
with many varieties of cacti, including the majestic Saguaro that grows over
forty feet high, numerous flowers, and other desert plants. We probably encountered less than 10 people,
but desert sun and empty water bottles sent us back to the car by 11:30 a.m.,
where it was already 95 degrees. But
hey, it’s a dry heat…right?
Entering West Saguaro National Park
Beginning our Climb
Mt. Wassen, our Destination
Early Spring Flowers, Desert Style
The Largest Cactus We Encountered
Practicing my Self Defense Moves against
Rattlesnakes
One Final Photo from Tucson
Then the road turned
and went directly for an immense wall of mountain that looked impossible to
drive around. It had to be a dead
end-there could be no opening in that sheer stone obtrusion, that invasion of
mountain. Where the canopy opened, I
could see canyon walls of yellow and orange pinnacles and turrets, fluted and
twisted, everything rising hundreds of feet.
I couldn’t have been more surprised.
I’d never heard of the Chiricahuas.
I expected nothing.
William Least Heat Moon
We left Tucson on Saturday morning, and headed southeast on
I-10 toward the New Mexico Border and the Chiricahua Wilderness. As we
drove, we witnessed one huge dust storm after another. Luckily, we avoided them all. At San Simon, Arizona, we took an exit off
the interstate, total desert except for rows of fruit trees (not sure what fruit) and
a huge mountain range to the south. Following directions for the Cave Creek Ranch,
we turned right onto a rough asphalt road, straight as an arrow, that disappeareed into some vanishing point miles ahead. After 9 miles, the asphalt ended and a dirt/gravel
road began, still heading straight south.
At this point Star took the wheel, and about halfway down
the 16 miles of dirt road, the track narrowed and began to climb.
With Star navigating, we continued to climb gradually until
we were surrounded by huge forested mountains with enormous and colorful rock
spires in the middle of a flat desert.
As we approached our destination, a huge canyon with tremendously varied
rock formations appeared. I turned to
Star and exclaimed, “My God, Star, it looks like Yosemite Valley!” We later found out the locals call this place
“The Yosemite of the Southwest.” Its official
name is Cave Creek Canyon. And it almost
is Yosemite, except it has no crowds, no development, no souvenir shops, only
one settlement of around 100 residents, and one general store/restaurant.
Star hiking up Cave Creek Canyon
6:00 a.m. from our Cabin
We later discovered that Chiricahua Wilderness is a world
class birding location. Although there
are almost no hikers here, there are birders from as far away as Canada, and
many stay in one of the 11 cabins at Cave Creek Ranch. Our cabin was cozy and private except for frequent visits from the deer, who emptied our bird feeder as often as the birds and squirrels. The area is also home to coyotes, mountain
lions, Javelinas, and of course, rattlesnakes. Birders who stay elsewhere pay their $5 and set up on the porch of the office, where you can sometimes smell the resident skunk.
The photo below may not be the best one ever, but it does catch an Elegant Trogon perched on a tree branch. I'm not a birder, but everyone was really excited about this spotting.
We are in Silver City two more days, and then it's time for our mad three day dash back to South Carolina. The next blog post will detail our highly adventurous Gila Wilderness backpacking trip, which didn't exactly go as planned.
After spending over two months ridding ourselves of our Maui possessions, dealing with our landlords on getting out of our lease, selling one of two vehicles, shipping our remaining vehicle to San Diego, and finally, cleaning our Maui rental from top to bottom, we have escaped Maui completely exhausted but happy to be returning home.
The flight to San Diego was, thankfully, uneventful. We arrived at the Best Western Bayside late on Tuesday, which turned out to be an excellent choice for unexpected reasons. The room was rather basic, but the employees were out of this world with kindness. As soon as we checked in, they set us up a cab ride for the next morning to an undisclosed location to pick up our Prius.
We mistakenly thought our car would be available for pickup at the docks in San Diego, but the cab driver knew where we needed to go. We were dropped off 8.5 miles inland from the hotel in a back alley at a towing company's small office. Evidently, there isn't enough room at the docks to hold vehicles, so this company is contracted to hold vehicles shipped from Maui until the owners arrive for pick-up.
After retrieving the car, we headed back to the hotel, loaded up the car, and took off on I-8 headed east towards San Diego at about 10 a.m. We went through the strangely beautiful Cleveland National Forest east of San Diego as we hugged the Mexican Border. It was fascinating watching the border patrol vehicles riding out in the desert between I-8 and the border. At one point, a border patrol vehicle suddenly came out of nowhere and crossed the interstate highway directly in front of us. Luckily, I was paying attention and hit the brakes.
It quickly turned hot as the desert sun rose, and by 11 a.m., the car thermometer read 100 degrees and stayed there until late that afternoon. We briefly exited the car to sight see on a couple of occasions, but the heat made all our outside ventures short ones. For all those people who say, "Oh, but it's a dry heat", I say "Bull Crap!" Hot is hot, and the California/Arizona sun felt hotter than even Maui.
For me, the highlight of yesterday's drive was the Imperial Sand Dunes in southeastern California.
We arrived in Tucson around 6 p.m. last night at a B&B called The Big Blue House, a small quirky place with quirky owners. Just our kind of place!
We ate a delicious dinner at The B-Line cafe and enjoyed being back in a university city. When Clemson one day grows up, maybe it will be more like the area around the University of Arizona. There are numerous weird cafes, restaurants, and bars surrounding the campus, and the place is electric with young people everywhere. Even Star got in on the action!
Sunset from our room at The Big Blue House
Today, we are relaxing and trying to get our "mainland legs" back under us. Tomorrow, we head to Saguaro National Park for some day hiking. On Friday, we head to Chiricahua National Monument for four days in a cabin. We will be off-line and off-grid for those days, so it may be a while before hearing from us.
Before leaving Maui, there are a couple of items still needing to be checked off our "must do" list. Yesterday, we completed one of those.
Jaws was running at 35-40 feet yesterday, which was down from the nearly 50 footers earlier in the week. Out here on Hawaii, they measure wave heights from the back face of the wave, so you can add another 6-8 ft. for the front face wave height.
To reach this mecca of big wave surfing, you must drive about a mile down a rough dirt road, which ends abruptly at an 80 foot pali dropping straight down to the Pacific. You can back your vehicle up to the cliffs and take in the action. There were about 60 or so "spectators" from around the globe watching the action yesterday. One couple was from Australia.
These big wave guys are insane. Jet skis pull them out to a set of incoming waves. A helicopter is hovering around just in case things go bad. To me, it appears as though a dark, giant mountain ridge suddenly rises from the ocean with a jet ski riding up its face pulling a surfer. The jet ski crosses over the rise and leaves quickly as the wave starts to crest. As the surfer descends the wave, he appears to be a downhill snow skier riding down the mountain ridge. The mountain ridge then appears to blow up behind him with a complete white out, and then the surfer re-appears as if by magic.
My favorite part is watching the wake the surfer cuts into these mammoth waves on their descent.
No thanks, I'll stick to body surfing the 5 and 6 footers.
Star has been wanting to take me to Molokai ever since her work trip to a school on the island last February. The island is no more than half the size of Pickens County and has a whopping population of 7,000 people. The majority of those are of Hawaiian descent.
If you're looking for resorts, high end restaurants, nightlife, or fancy gift shops, then Molokai is probably not for you. If you're looking for a quiet, laid-back, secluded island, then you can stop looking. Molokai is a secret gem in the Hawaiian archipelago. I think the photos and videos below will verify that statement.
My favorite part of the trip was actually the 30 minute Makani Kai Airlines flight over and back. The pilot takes you by all the sweet spots at a low elevation, and, at less than $200 round trip for the both of us, it was quite the deal. Best of all on the flight to Molokai, Star and I were the only two passengers on board. Yes, you heard right; there was one pilot, one flight attendant, two passengers.
Star, the flight attendant, and me
No problems with leg room on this flight.
Leaving Maui
That's a mighty big rock
Arriving at Molokai
Tallest Sea Cliffs in the World at
2,500 ft. in height
Below is Papohaku Beach, two miles long with beautiful white sand. Star and I were here about an hour, and were the only two people on the entire beach. I've heard of Australia's Gold Coast, but I can't imagine it being any more striking. I started looking for Wilson and Tom Hanks.
When I asked Star why there were only one set of footprints,
she responded, "Because that's when you stayed off the hot
sand and took photographs of me."
On Day 2, Friday August 28th, we drove up to the Molokai State Park at the edge of the cliffs. The Kalaupapa Lookout is incredible, looking down to what was once called "The Leper Colony." There are around fifteen survivors of Hansen's Disease still living by choice in the village. They will be the final Hansen patients on the peninsula. Beginning in the 1880's, Hawaiians with symptoms were hunted down, boarded on ships, and unceremoniously forced to swim to the isolated peninsula. Initially, many of them died quickly, since there were no amenities. The site is now home to a new National Park.
Of course, Star insisted on taking the hike out to nearby phallic rock. When she crawled right on top of it, I'll admit it made me feel a bit inadequate.
Star looking way too satisfied
While Molokai doesn't offer much for the serious hiker or backpacker, there are numerous four wheel drive roads. On Day 3, we took our rental Jeep on a trek into the Molokai Forest Reserve, which hugs the tops of the sea cliffs along Molokai's North Coast. We made it 18 miles through beautiful, secluded forests, until at around 4,000 ft. elevation we encountered very steep downhills and decided to call it quits. This was new to us, but Star had a blast. One of the early stops was the Sandlewood Pit.
I've heard King Kamehameha wasn't very popular after
his men gathered up much of the precious sandlewood and
sold it to China in 1888.
This is the actual pit the King's men dug to replicate the hull
of the ship, so they could sell as much as possible to China. At
one time, it was full of sandlewood.
The end of the road for us
Somebody tell me, is Star having fun yet?
36 miles of off road will make you delirious
On our last full day, we ventured to the East Coast and the Halawa Valley. This little road hugs the coast the entire way.
Good to see that Molokai has the same auto recycling program
as Maui.
