So different, yet all so beautiful!

We love all the diversity that we find in the Tonto and Coconino National Forests surrounding the little mountain town of Pine, where we live.

Today we took one of our nicest bike rides ever, and two days ago took one of our best hikes.  All close to home.

Significantly, on the bike ride and on the hike we saw no other people.  We don't really understand.  It seems to us that there were many more people on the rim last year than this year.  We have had several outings where we have seen no one else.  We're not complaining, mind you.  We love having the forest all to ourselves.  It's just puzzling.

Yesterday's hike was along another of our four-numbers-and-a-letter Forest Service roads, which means it will definitely be somewhere between an old 4-wheel drive road and a deserted trail.

The forest opened up in the last quarter mile of the hike, and look what we saw!

Then today we headed off on our bikes, and found a totally different world just a few miles north of the hike we took yesterday.

Today's bike ride was amazing.  The road was comfortable enough that we could focus on the terrain.  It was in a part of the rim that we term the "grasslands."  There is grass everywhere and the trees are not closely spaced.  This gives a wonderful feeling of openness.

Today was also special because we saw wild turkeys!   We didn't know they were on the rim.  

While we're talking about wild animals, here is a nice shot of what we saw a few days earlier cycling in Strawberry.  For the record, it didn't wave back. How rude!

Here we are cycling on the Mogollon Rim in the vast beautiful grasslands that stretch from Happy Jack to Flagstaff and beyond…..

Every morning we wake up, talk, and get to decide…..what adventure will we go on today?

Here we are over ten years ago after climbing over nine miles to the top of Navaho Knobs in Capitol Reef….just one of thousands of adventures we have had.  Life is sweet when we’re together.

Splain this

We decided to replace the two porch lights.  They were absolutely awful.  Ugly, misshapen.

So we purchased the ones we wanted and went to work replacing them.

Look how bad they were.  Uggggggglyyyy!

Now, here is where this blog entry turns weird (cue Twilight Zone sound track).

Inside the electrical box of the light on the back porch was a peanut!  An uneaten peanut. It’s probably been there for years, just waiting for someone to rescue it.  It was hard as a rock.

How did it get there?  A squirrel?  How did a squirrel get it, and why didn't the squirrel just open it and eat it?  

If the squirrel could leave it, the squirrel could also retrieve it.  

What fun.  

By the way, we didn’t eat the peanut….we threw it our in the woods for our friendly squirrels to discover.  We imagine that some old granddaddy squirrel is telling his little grandchildren squirrels, “you see, it always pays to hide a peanut away for a rainy day.”

The joy of cycling together….

 only gets better through the years!

Six years ago here we were on top of Weber Canon, on Horse Heaven Hills in Eastern Washington, cycling the Inland Empire Century.

Today’s ride was reminds us of all the wonderful times we have donned our cycling clothes, put on our helmets, and headed out on a bike ride.  There’s nothing better than playing together with the love of your life, your best friend, and the one who are married to for all your life!

Here we are on Fossil Springs Road outside of Strawberry, Arizona, with the Tonto National Forest right behind us.

What joy, what exhilaration, what peace of mind to know that we will spend every day for the rest of our lives together.

Celebrating my Danny, the best father in the world

And celebrating the other best ever fathers that are in our family—Sean, Jules, Owen, Ryan, Calvin.  And of course, this day is also for our fathers who are no longer in this world with us:  Dad, Dan’s father, Vernon, my children’s grandfather, and my father. These are the men that deserve to be role models for children and fathers around the world.  We love them all.

I am so very lucky…I get to spend every day with my love, the best husband and the best father ever.  He has so much love to share with his family, and he shows this love in many different ways every single day to all of us.

And our family shows their love for him always.

Here is our Father Day in pictures…..

Breakfast in bed, with bacon and mashed potatoes (and a peek at his special Father’s Day wine).

We took an early morning walk to our sweet little touristy town of Pine.  This village really comes to life later in the day on the weekends.  The rest of the week, it is our very own quaint and quiet town.  

We really enjoy living in a town that has its’ own personality, like Pine does.  We had this for years, when we lived in Langley, “The Village by the Sea,” on Whidbey Island in Washington.

The sunrise and clouds put on a brilliant display of artwork for us.

We even have our own Senior Thrift Shop, which wished all of our fathers a very happy day. No one who lives in Pine had any excuse for forgetting Father’s Day.  I guess the shop knows that seniors can be forgetful at times.

Every self respecting tourist town has an abundance of antique/junk stores, at least two ice cream shops, historical homes, and a town museum.  Right in the middle of Pine there is a historical marker and home, the Stagecoach Stop, where the Pony Express rider would stop and get a fresh mount in the 1880’s.   Seriously, the Pony Express went right through our little town.

Another amazing “must go to see” place in Pine are some 1500-year-old Anasazi ruins. For real!  We took Soren and Sebastian on a short (and very steep) hike to the top of a hill in Pine, where we enjoyed this small group of ancient “homes” made from the native rock.  Boy, did the Anasazi have a great view of the valley and surrounding mountains where Pine is now located!

In Pine today, there are several food trucks, restaurants, and even a local guitarist singing in a shaded courtyard.  It seems like every time we walk by he is playing "Here Comes the Sun."  We hope he knows more tunes, but who knows?  We’ve danced on the street to his music.

Every shop calls out to the tourists (and us) to come inside and look around.  The raggedy, falling-down wooden shack that sells honey has a sign out front that says, "You’re honey is inside.”  

In addition to all this, the mountain town of Pine has the world’s best chainsaw artists and a shop named, “Come see what we saw.” (groan)

Although the price of their woodwork is prohibitive (but well worth it), it is a wonderful place to stop and enjoy the beauty, sweetness, and often humor of each piece of art. There is even a full size teepee in the yard with a fire often burning inside for both children and adults to enjoy.

We want our children and grandchildren not to worry, we purchased no “herbs” from the the Herb Stop.  We were high enough having such a loving family and being together on this beautiful day.  (Besides the shop wasn’t open). We just borrowed the shop's scenic site and comfortable chairs for a coffee stop.

We just love this touristy little town.  We ambled around for an hour and a half.  By the time we got back home, we had walked several hundred feet of elevation gain!  Well, I guess that’s not surprising--our cabin is in the mountains, after all. 

Dan, this special Dad, Grandfather, and brother received many wonderful cards, phone calls, texts, gifts, and emails from our family.   

Each card and gift was chosen with care and filled with love.

One thing Dan wanted to do on Father’s Day was dance with me….I, of course, wanted this too.  So he had put together a special song list for us to dance to.  When Dan received Emily’s poem, “I Hope You Dance,” he immediately recognized that this is the words from a song that we had danced to in the past!

He added this song, “I Hope You Dance,” to our dance list.  And we danced and danced and danced!

 

....and yes, we are dancing outside on our front porch, for everyone to see.  So far, no crowds have gathered to give us applause.  A few people drove by and when they saw how happily we were dancing in each other’s arms, they smiled and waved.  It’s fun to make others happy.  One of the nice things about Pine is that it is a do-your-own thing place.  There is a type of freedom here that is hard to describe. 

 

Dan’s request was for dinner was my homemade nachos.  We enjoyed them out on our deck, under the tall pine trees.

And at the end of this wonderful Father’s Day….a surprise, my last present to my love…and carrot cake cupcakes!

This father was certainly in a celebratory mood—he ate THREE cupcakes.  He might have eaten more, but since I ate one, there were no more.

As for my last present—it was matching Arizona Trail shirts for hiking and cycling.

Here we are, the next day out hiking in our new Father’s Day AZT shirts.  We just happened to discover, quite by accident, one of our all time favorites hikes!

Views to die for…one of our top 10 hikes!

And only 30 minutes from our cabin!

We set off today to hike up on the Mogollon Rim.  We had a couple of options that Vicky had scoped out.  We frequently do that--decide on the way.  

As we were driving along, Vicky said something to the effect of "or we could hike off of the road coming up, the Rim Road," so we pulled off, drove a ways, saw some interesting side roads that Vicky thought would go far enough for a hike, and stopped. 

We like to hike on roads that are four numbers and a letter.  That means they are rarely traveled on by vehicles.  They are 4-wheel drive roads, at best.  

Here is an example.  A three number road.  You could drive your Prius on it:

  

Now, a four number road with a letter.  Often the Forest Service has categorized these roads as "closed," which means closed to motorized vehicles.   But not closed to hikers or, as we found out after getting permission from the Park Service,  to our bikes. 

Yesterday we hiked on a beautiful four-letter-and-a-number road:

This was the good part of the road.  There were sections where we weren't even sure we could drive it in our 4Runner.

The hike was so peaceful, the road going along Webber Creek.  

After close to two miles we could tell that the forest was opening up ahead.

And it did, to one of the most beautiful sites we have seen.  A large meadow along the edge of the rim.  Views in several directions.  Stunning.  The photos show it:

We saw hoodoos that were as spectacular as any we have ever seen elsewhere, including in National Parks.

We read an article this morning in the New York Times about how crowded National Parks are becoming.  (our solution, by the way, is to create more National Parks!). 

Yet, yesterday, 30 minutes from our home, we had a spectacular hike.  We saw no one else.  Just us and nature.  With stunning meadows and views, and quiet forests with birds and many butterflies. 

Of course, we had to discover this amazing place on our own.  And work for this experience.  It was a four mile hike with a decent elevation gain.  But that is part of the fun….in fact the discovery of a new spectacular hike is exhilarating to both of us!

2022 baby elk…welcome to Pine!

We live in the middle of a wildlife refuge at our cabin….or so it seems.  Everywhere we look we see the beauty that nature, or perhaps God, has given to us.

A few weeks ago as we sat relaxing on our front deck, a young pregnant elk wandered up our driveway and onto our patio.

Later, I had a scare as I was working on lining our little stream bed with rocks.  I bent down to pick up a rock…and almost picked up a brightly colored snake!

The coloring was very similar to a deadly Coral snake, but I found out later that my snake was a nonvenomous King snake.  Here is a rhyme to help us remember how to tell the two snakes apart: 

“Red touching black, safe for Jack. Red touching yellow, kill a fellow.”

And of course, the spring flowers are glorious both surrounding Pine and on the Rim!

One of our local Coues deer wandered by our cabin. We see adult and baby Coues deer often in Pine and on our hikes. Although this looks like a miniature deer to us, it is an adult.

The Coues deer is a sub-species of the Whitetail deer.  It is much smaller version of the Whitetail deer, and appears sweet and dainty.  

We saw two more Coues deer in the Tonto National Forest on the Pine-Strawberry Trail.  This trail is our go-to trail, because it’s only 1/4 mile hike from our cabin and there is no trail more beautiful.

We spotted a yearling male Coues deer on one of our early morning walks in Pine.  He had just sprouted his first set of antlers.

He was quite curious about us….he walked straight toward Dan and me, and just stood still examining us strange creatures.  It was quite special to be so close to this beautiful, bold youngster.

A few weeks later, another (or maybe the same) pregnant elk casually grazed in our front yard.  She glanced at me totally without concern.  Maybe because she was three times larger than me, or maybe because we live in the middle the the elk’s forest.  

After all, the elk were here first and they tolerate us humans.  This is their land.  The small hamlet of Pine is a very small portion of the forests where the elk roam.  

We enjoy the prickly pear blossoms in our front yard….

A pregnant mama elk nibbled leaves under our front deck.

One of my very favorite wildflower, the lupine, is blossoming everywhere.

We were on a bike ride in Pine and had our very FIRST ever baby elk sighting…it still had the newborn camouflage spots on its' back!  The baby was surrounded and protected by its' mama and two aunts.  

Several bees were having a morning snack at our prickly pear blossom.

While cycling on Fossil Springs Road later that week, I saw a suspicious stick ahead of us in the middle to the road.

Luckily, we stopped….it was a very irritated Black rattlesnake, who just wanted to be left alone.  In grade school, Dan and I had been School Crossing Guards, so we knew to wait patiently for the snake to cross the road.

On the same bike ride we saw a mama elk and our SECOND baby elk.  They were happily running across the road in front of us.  It was another infant elk compete with its' blanket of spots!  

In the past week or so the baby elk started coming fast and furious.  On a walk in our neighborhood early in the morning, only two blocks from our cabin, we saw a herd of elk resting in the trees.  We counted FOUR babies, nestled in the center of the herd!

Look what we saw in the woods while we were cycling three miles down the road from Pine, in our small sister town of Strawberry.  A half hour later we saw two other adult javelina with their baby dashing through the woods. 

 

Why did the javelina cross the road?  Clearly, so Dan could wave to him and say “hello.”

The big daddy of our local elk herd ambles by our cabin every afternoon.  He rules all the mama elk, the yearlings, the calves, and people who live in Pine..  All the cars and people move aside when he walks down the road.  He is a magnificent animal.

Today our friendly mama elk came by our front yard to proudly show us her new baby….we have named her Eliza and her calf, Eli.  

Eli is the youngest elk calf we have seen.  It looked like she was just barely steady on her long, spindly baby legs.

We got to see a rare treat..safely hidden deep in the pine trees on our property Eli was contently nursing.  

Mama and our new baby elk know that no harm will come to them in Pine.  Here they are on their daily walk in front of our cabin.  How we love seeing this parade of wildlife go by our home!

But what about bears and mountain lions….will we ever get to see one?

Thaddeus, the man who refurbished the outside of our cabin, has spent all his life around and on the Mogollon Rim.  When we told him that two of our grandson’s were Scouts, he mentioned that he was an Eagle Scout.  Of course, we had to brag that our son-in-law is also an Eagle Scout.  

Thaddeus told us that he was going to go bow hunting for bear this weekend up on the Rim.  He showed us numerous videos and photos he had taken through his binoculars of bear roaming near the Rim.  He also has seen several mountain lions in the rocks on the Rim.  Thaddeus is the epitome of a true outdoors man and Eagle Scout, just like Sean.

“Lions, and tigers, and bears, oh my,” as Dorothy said in the Wizard of Oz.  Boy, are we stoked….we will be even more vigilant and very hopeful for a sighting of bear and mountain lion!  

We are surrounded by nature’s abundance and beauty.  We thrive on our daily dose of nature.  That, and spending every minute together, keeps us physically and mentally healthy and happy.