Tight squeeze

Well I'm bummed. My left leg/hip has flared up again. It's a problem I have had off and on for about five years. My guess is that I torqued the band running on the outside of my leg our first night back in Mesa when we danced. I shouldn't do fast spins on that leg. I get injured doing the polka? How embarrassing.

It was a little better yesterday morning so I thought we could do a relatively flat hike we found in our hiking brochures. To get to the trail head we had to drive up a forest service road by Workman Creek. We had driven up there previously when we were looking for camping spots. According to our map of the Tonka National Forest (I keep doing this--I mean the Tonto National Forest), there were three camping areas. However, it turned out that the first two we got to had loud signs saying "No Camping."

The third area was open, but as was the case in other areas around here that we explored, there was not room to maneuver our camper, even though we are pretty danged small as campers go. We eventually went on to Rose Creek Campground, and we were very happy there.

Nobody else was at this campground, which is not an unfamiliar experience for us. We like that. We like being all by ourselves, with the quiet. If you haven't done it, you should try it. Nobody within miles of you, deep in the forest, snug in your camper, coyotes howling at night. Wow.

Even though we were quite content where we were, we had some discussions about whether we should have just parked and camped at one of these first two areas up the Workman Creek road. We thought the forest service wouldn't hassle us since nobody (and I mean NOBODY) else was around.

Well, when we took this Workman Creek road to our hike a couple of days later we had a rude awakening, and a reason to think about following the rules even if you didn't understand them at first.

The reason the first two areas were not open for camping is that you might get radiation poisoning and grow a third ear, or vote Republican, or something equally awful. We are glad we obeyed the rules.

So we traveled up this road to the trail head for our hike today. We ran into a bridge that we knew was there, because we had seen signs earlier indicating that the load limit was 20 tons. Well, we were only at 5 tons, so we weren't too worried.

Until we got to it. Too tight. Too narrow. Too scary. (To really see our predicament remember to double click on these, and other photos--the photos really come alive if you do this.)




We still had a couple of miles until the trail head, and the road was getting worse (more big rocks, more need for 4 wheel drive, more need for high clearance, narrower, steeper drop offs), so we both, almost simultaneously, invoked the safety rule (something we have devised--if either of us does not feel a situation is safe, then that person can invoke the safety rule and we leave. It is not open for discussion or negotiation.)

This meant backing up and turning around. Had to be real careful, but we successfully negotiated this tight mountain road. We are a great team--Vicky gives good directions, and I go verrrrrrry slowly and carefully. One mistake and I and the rig would have been at the bottom of a ravine, and that would have ruined both of our days.













We are realizing that as good as our pickup is, we probably should have spent the extra (lots extra) bucks for a one-ton four wheel drive vehicle. It is something we need to consider given the places we like to go.

Of course, they are expensive as all get out, which is why we never considered one in the first place. Life decisions.

We thought that we would hike today and spend another night at our secluded campground, but since that plan went awry we decided to drive on to Roosevelt Lake, which was going to be our destination the following day.
What a beautiful drive! Double click these photos for a treat!

















And about 35 miles after leaving the forest wilderness here we are in a totally different place. Roosevelt lake has over 800 camping sites. 800!


In the summer it has to be like a small city, and an unpleasant one at that. This is the only place we have been that allows generators to be used all of the time. Can you imagine? In the summer, hundreds of generators humming along churning out fumes and noise? It would be like sleeping at a huge truck stop where dozens of truck engines are spewing out fumes. Right now it is bad enough with only about 10% of the sites filled. We long for our forest campground.

But we are here for now, resting my leg. We might not hike for a few days to allow it to heal. It is driving us crazy, but it is the wise thing to do.

Sometimes wisdom sucks, however.