Lost in the Desert

Saturday we went to Phoenix to visit Jims mom. We had a really nice time and came back fairly early. After we got home we got ready and went for a hike.

When we left the house at 5:30pm it was 102 degrees out. We planned for a 3 mile hike on the loop trail that is by our house.  Jim carried two (2) 16.5 oz bottles of water (one for each of us).

By the time were had gone a quarter of a mile I was hot.  So Jim took one of the bottles of water and poured it over us.  Of course, it dried pretty quickly.

It was a beautiful hike.  We walked to the windmill and then continued on the loop.  We walked...and we walked....and we walked...and then Jim almost stepped on a rattlesnake.  In this video you can hear the rattlesnake but it went into the brush along the trail and I couldn't see it anymore.  My camera makes a sound when I use telephoto but the other rattle sound in the video is the snake shaking his tail.  Quite a scarey sound when you are out hiking.



 
So, we were a little shaken when we saw the snake and I'm not sure if that is the reason that we missed out turn.  I've been on this trail many times now and Jim was counting on me to know the way.  It started getting dark, and then the sun set, and I still didn't know where the turn off was for the trail back the direction of our house. Once we hit the turn off its still a good mile to home.

Then, off in the far distance we heard dogs barking.  There is a kennel by our house and in the evening before feeding time we hear the dogs barking.  I realized that the dogs were tooooo far away and that I had completely missed the turn.

We were so hot and thirsty...and it was getting dark....and we had already had one encounter with a snake and I knew there were many more out there.  Dusk is when they come out even more.

My phone was almost dead but I was able to bring up my google map and get a reading as to where we were.  I realized we were miles from where we needed to be. There was no time to get home before dark. 

We ran as much as we could because we had a lot of terrain to cover to just get to houses.  My mouth felt like cotton because I was so thirsty.  I figured if we could at least see a house we would be safe. I just wanted to be on a road where we could at least see the snakes better.   We finally came on the gas line maintenance road.  This is a clear cut path, not really a road, with an underground gas line and overhead power lines that cuts through the area.  I've seen it on a map enough times to realize where it comes out on the main road. 

At one point we smelled Javalina really strongly.  Either they were there or it was an area they frequented.  Just a little nerve rattling.

The power lines cut over some very rugged area but we were committed to following them since it was the only way out of our situation that I could think of besides calling some friends to come rescue us. That would have been embarrassing.  We ran as long as we could until it was too dark and dangerous to run.  We had to be so careful for snakes.

We had a couple of mouthfuls of water left and so I just drank enough to wet my mouth. 

We finally came out to a road.  It just happened to be a road on the other side of the ridge from our house.  The roads on one side of the ridge do not connect to the other side of the ridge.  If we were to stay on the road it would have been a 10 mile walk to our house down the ridge and back up.  The road did lead to the dog kennel though that was at the top of the ridge.   I knew if we could sneak through the dog kennel we could get back on the road that goes to our house.  It was at this point that Jim pulls out a flashlight.  Wow, I didn't even know he had one on him.  That made me feel a little better.

It was about a mile walk on the road to the dog kennel.  I wasn't too excited about sneaking through private property but there is a point you cross when you are out of water and its dark.

I figured if I made enough noise and the people came out that I would just explain our situation.  I didn't wanted to be caught sneaking around.  Jim on the other had wanted me to be quiet and get through quickly.  I'm not sure what the best case is when it comes to a dog kennel.  There must have been 100 dogs barking at us at one time + 3 donkeys braying on the other side of us.  Craziness.  There is nothing quiet about it.

I didn't know my way around the dog kennel but I knew what direction I needed to go.  Once I saw their water tank I knew we were close to where we needed to be.  We were able to get over the fence and onto the road in our neighborhood.  Five minutes later we were home.   I'm not sure Jim will ever want to trust my hiking directions again.

The first thing I did was guzzle two large glasses of water.  I NEVER want to be in that situation again.  I will always take water even when  I think I am just going for a quick walk.  The desert is not a place to mess around.

We went and did the supposed hike again on Sunday night (not the part where we got lost).  We walked it backwards this time. We built a large mound of rocks right at the turn so we could not miss it.

We love where we live and enjoy the desert so much but I did learn a big lesson this time.  Now, I will have a lot more respect for it.  I am still sore from the experience.  Running over some of that terrain was exhausting in the heat.  Even though it was dark it was still in the high 90 degrees.

We have seen some really interesting things out there and I will post some more pictures later.  Before we got lost I took some great photos from out Saturday hike.  They are below.

This is the neighborhood road where we cut into the Saguaro National Park.

Beautiful Barrel Cactus flowers

The trail has been washed out in many places by all the summer rain.

This is one of my favorite areas of the trail