With archery deer season a month away I've been itching to get outside for some scouting. I returned to the spot in Tonto where I put a stalk on a large mule deer buck last season. There's so many places here that I want to explore, and Sugarloaf Mountain has been on the top of the list. This time of year the desert is so nice. The heat is a shadow of its summer self. This area is a favorite of mine, partly because of its location to my house, but also because Cave Creek provides a reliable source of water in the desert, which is a rarity. So, I was shocked when I reached the creek and found it bone dry. The usual clear flowing water replaced with a bed of sand and dry cracked mud. I've been here over 20 times in the last 3 years, and I've never seen it dry.
Coyote or lion?
The dry creek bed offered me a rare chance to experience the area's wildlife in a whole new way. I saw dozens of tracks dried in the mud as I abandoned the trail and walked north in the creek as it wound further into the mountains. I spotted plenty of bird and rodent tracks, but no deer. I also saw what I originally took to be lion tracks, I was sure they were lion as I followed them along the bed, but after I got home and studied the photos I now believe they belong to a large coyote.
Garter Snake
I slowed down as I reached the approach to Sugarloaf where I saw the buck last season. It's hard to be quiet in the desert, and my footfalls were crunchy on the loose rocks. I almost stepped on a snake that was crossing the ground in front of me. I love seeing any kind of wildlife in the desert, so even a common garter snake will cause me to pause and just watch for awhile. Climbing up a nearby mountain was slow going, The country here is rough and rocky, and full of all manner of cacti. My pace was slow as I navigated the terrain, while trying to stay quiet and watch for rattlesnakes. Finally I reached a good spot with views of the valleys and hillsides surrounding Sugarloaf. I sat on my pack and glassed the day away with my new binoculars. I picked up a set of 10x42 Alpen Wings to replace my old Bushnells. They looked great in the store, but out in the field they just don't seem to be as good as I hoped.
It was a fun and productive day. I didn't spot any deer or see any sign other than a few old tracks. Certainly, I didn't see anything to make me believe that deer of any number are in the area. I didn't even find any scat. Before I cross the area off my list as a potential hunting location I think I need to spend the night out there so I can glass at dusk and dawn. Such a trip is at least a week away however, as I am heading to Joshua Tree for three days on Friday. Stay tuned.
How may of my trip reports begin with "The original plan was...?" This was one of those trips where nothing went right, even before I stepped out the front door. Since I had three days off in a row, I decided it would be the perfect opportunity for some backpacking. I thought I would head into the Superstitions for a few days. Enjoy some peace and quiet. Enjoy some solitude. My plan was to just "wing it". I would figure it out as I went.
Flowers are blooming
It was Monday morning and I couldn't find my map. I had last used it back in December. The last time I was in the Superstitions. But now it was gone. Not to be dissuaded, I decided to visit the Cave Creek area of Tonto National Forest again. My "go to" spot, if you will. Plus, I had the map. At the trailhead I knew right away that I shouldn't be there. My hip was killing me right out of the gate. Sciatic pain screamed down my leg into my calf with every step. I didn't think it would be that bad. A mile in I was already limping. I considered turning around, but I just didn't want to quit. I could simply just ignore the pain. Like I do every day. Three miles in and I needed a break. I found a nice shady spot and lied down. I stretched my leg and did some other exercises. I considered turning around again. I was in too much pain for a solo jaunt through the desert. I clearly was not in the proper physical condition for backpacking. But I had made it three miles, so I decided to camp right there.
Me camp. Argh!
I pitched my tarp as a windbreak and collected firewood. Even that was painful. I lazed the afternoon away and cooked dinner with my alcohol stove. Chicken and mashed potatoes ala freeze dried. Good stuff. I turned in about 8 pm. Around 10 pm I awoke to the sound of breaking brush near my camp. Something big was near. I ignored the sound. There are no bears in the low desert. But the sound didn't abate. Something was hanging around my camp. I got out of bed, turned on my headlamp, and scanned the darkness. Nothing but shoulder-high brush and tress. I crawled back into bed. Not 10 minutes later I heard breaking branches followed by huffing and puffing. This time I jumped out of bed. I scanned the dark with my headlamp again. Again I didn't see anything. I decided to reignite my smoldering fire. I found a large branch and snapped it in half. The sound of the snapping branch pierced the night, and startled whatever was in the brush. It ran toward the creek and jumped in the water. I could hear its footfalls as it splashed across the creek and crawled up the embankment on the other side.
I sat by the fire for the next hour, just making as much noise as I could. By then I was thoroughly spooked. There are no bears in the low desert. I have never seen bear-sign in that area before. The only large predators in that area are mountain lion, but I reasoned that it couldn't have been a mountain lion because lions are silent. If a lion wanted to eat me, it could have crept up to my bed and locked its jaws around my throat without me even knowing. It could have been a coyote, but I didn't think so. The coyotes I have seen in the desert have been very small. I reasoned that it had to have been either a deer or a javelina, or maybe even a herd of javelina. I have run into javelina in the desert and they have not been aggressive, so I knew that I had nothing to fear from them. Eventually my reasoning quelled my fear, and I went back to bed.
At 3am I awoke again. This time from a heavy wind pounding my tarp. I had pitched the tarp in a windshield configuration expecting high winds, but the wind had changed direction by 3am. I crawled out of my bag and tightened all the guylines. The wind grew stronger and stronger and I couldn't fall back asleep. Finally around 3:30am, a huge gust literally pulled my stakes right out of the ground, and my tarp collapsed on top of me. I had anticipated this might happen, so I had stacked large stones on top of my tent stakes, but they had been flung aside by the wind battering my tarp. I got up and drove the stakes back in. This time I piled up boulder sized stones on the tent stakes. All the while, the bending and lifting was shooting pain down my leg. By 4am the wind had grown even stronger and it pulled another stake from the ground causing a corner of my tarp to flap. I got up and drove the stake in again, and piled 3 boulders on top of the stake. Then I lowered my trekking poles about 6 inches, drastically reducing the angle of the windshield, and thus surface area for the wind to hit. It worked perfectly. I wanted to kick myself for not thinking of it sooner. Such an obvious solution.
Cave Creek
I awoke with the sun around 7:30am. After such a brutal night I felt worse than I did when I went to bed. After a cold breakfast of granola and powdered milk, I packed up and headed back. The hike out was worse than the hike in. Of course, it was beautiful, and I did get to see many wonderful desert birds including a red tailed hawk, ravens, geese, and some cactus wren. The beauty of being there made up for the pain, but clearly I need to see a doctor before I do any more backpacking. I just don't have it in me at the moment. I guess for now I'll have to take it easy. Thanks for reading.
Some of you may know that I took up the bow recently. I can't believe how much fun it is. I can't believe it took me 36 years to pick one up. Archery deer season began in January, and with it a new reason to get outside. Some people evolve from backpacking to climbing or mountaineering, but for me, I'm evolving toward self-reliance. That's what I've always loved about backpacking: relying on myself for everything. That's why I chose a recurve. It's simple. It takes skill and instinct developed though practice. Hunting, I think, is the next evolution in that self-reliance concept that I'm pursuing.
Jim and I decided on the Cave Creek area of Tonto National Forest for our hunt. We both know that area very well, and that played a big role in our decision. That area isn't exactly known for an abundance of mule deer, but a trail cam nearby at Spur Cross Ranch Conservation Area convinced me that it would bear fruit. I follow Spur Cross Ranch on Facebook and they post regular photos from that cam on their Facebook feed. Besides coyote, bobcat, javelina and mountain lion, I have seen plenty of deer on that cam, including at least one large buck. We hunted the area just north of the conservation area.
Camp for the first 2 days.
It was exhilarating hiking under a full moon late Tuesday night. It was my first time backpacking that I've started at 9pm at night. The desert was alive with night sounds and the many creek crossings kept us on our toes. About 4 miles in we camped high on a saddle near Skull Mesa. The wind was roaring and I was concerned that my tarp would take a beating. I set it up in a simple windshield type configuration with the windward side nearest the ground. I didn't get much sleep with the wind pounding my tarp all night. I kept expecting it to collapse, but it didn't.
It was dark when we awoke. After a quick cup of coffee we geared up and hit a hillside that we expected would be a good position for glassing. We had great views into a large valley that the creek ran directly through. To me it looked like a perfect spot for animal activity, but we didn't see anything all morning. There was an even higher peak just to the south of us, so we decided to climb that to gain a different vantage point. Near the top we saw javelina sign everywhere. Holes in the ground. Half eaten prickly pear. Dug out beds under paloverde trees... And just like that javelina were darting about all around us. We saw big ones, small ones, and even babies. We walked right into a javelina herd that had bedded down for the day. Most of them just scattered, but one particularly large javelina stood 10 yards away from me staring at me. I clutched my bow waiting for him to charge me, but he didn't. Frankly I'm not sure he could even see me very well. I told James that if we had javelina tags we would have filled them the first day of the hunt.
Rusted out old Ford.
Our new vantage point on the mountain-top didn't reveal anything new. The valley appeared void of any animal life. We glassed until around 1pm, and not seeing any sign, we hiked down to the valley to get a closer look. Down at the bottom we saw some really cool Hohokam petroglyphs. Although I've seen them before, I always have to stop to check them out when I'm nearby. It still amazes me what the ancient people of the desert were able to accomplish in this dry, harsh landscape. We spent the rest of the day scouting the valley we had glassed all morning. We saw javelina and coyote sign everywhere. We saw bobcat tracks, and a rusted out old Ford that someone had dropped very purposefully over a drainage to presumably act as a bridge. But we didn't find any deer sign at all. We needed a new plan.
Jimbo glassing
That night I saw my first ever wild scorpion. It crawled out from underneath a rock when I was preparing to start a fire. It only took 2 and 1/2 years of desert dwelling to see one! The wind on that second night was even more viscous than the night before. But despite the 40 mph gusts I slept much better. I think because I wasn't worried nearly as much about the stability of my tarp. I just knew it would hold, and it did.
The next morning we moved to a spot that Jimbo had picked out from the map. It was closer to the conservation area, and we reasoned that maybe the deer were staying closer to the park because they just instinctively knew it was hunting season, and of course hunting is illegal in the park. Hiking up a hillside Jim spotted a large buck not 30 yards in front of him. He said later that it was the largest buck he'd ever seen in Arizona (and he grew up here). The buck was onto us immediately and literally the second Jim stopped and whispered "buck", it dropped into a wash and out of sight. We came up with a plan of action right away. I would flank high up the hill and try to drive the buck down the wash into Jim's position below. I nocked an arrow and crept up the hill as quietly as I could. It's hard sneaking in the desert with all the pokey plants everywhere. I was stuck by multiple cacti during my maneuver. I reached the top of the wash and spotted Jim below. We both looked at each other and raised our arms as if to say "where did he go?" We spent the rest of the day trying to track that buck to no avail, but the good news was that new spot we were in was full of deer sign. We decided to move our camp lower so we wouldn't have to make the hard hike up and down the mountain the next day,
Our new camp was near the creek and the wind was nill. Some critter made a racket in a wood pile nearby, and the entire area was covered in Javelina tracks. A spider the size of a mouse scurried through the sand near my tarp, and I was briefly concerned that I would be sharing my sleeping bag with it or one of its friends. We enjoyed the peaceful night as we sat by the fire and planned out the next day. Even though we had come up empty so far, we felt good about our prospects for the next day in this new spot.
It's me.
Early the next morning we were glassing from a hill at the same location we spotted the buck the day before. We spent all morning out there searching in vain. The desert mule deer is not easy to find, and we reckoned that the deer were even closer to the park then we originally thought. All in all, our hunting trip turned into a 4 day scout, as we only spent one day doing any real hunting. We simply could not find the deer. But it wasn't time wasted. I learned a ton... The desert is an excellent teacher.
There I was, back in action in a familiar place. The 4th time I've backpacked into the Cave Creek region of Tonto National Forest. I planned a route that would take me to the most remote sections, on trails completely unfamiliar to me. A good way to keep things fresh when you consistently return to the same place. All in all I connected 5 trails for a 27 mile long loop. This plan was a little ambitious for me, but I wanted to challenge myself. Plus I wanted to see what kind of difference my newly lightened load would make. In fact, my pack only had a 10-pound base-weight. At 16 pounds with food and water it was by far the lightest load I've ever carried backpacking.
Friday was mostly spent on Cottonwood Trail #247 as it wound east along Cottonwood Creek then north on Bronco Creek going the long way around Skull Mesa. This trail is aptly listed as a "primitive trail" by the forest service, and I had a tough time following it, especially when it dropped down onto the creek-bed itself, where I kept losing it minus any trail markers or obvious trail. That's one of the challenges of desert hiking is that the dirt trail you're following doesn't contrast well with more dirt, so trail finding can be tricky. Multiple times I found myself erroneously hiking up a wash, or seeking out a high point to look down and spot the trail. Needless to say, I did a lot of backtracking.
At one point while walking along a creek-bed I wandered into a narrow canyon that I suspected was not the route I should be following, but the natural beauty of the place drew me on. Amid high granite walls I ran into a huge bee swarm. Now, if there is any desert critter that I am nervous about running into it's bees, mainly because Arizona is home to Africanized Honey Bees (aka Killer Bees), and I for one can't tell the difference between a regular honey bee and a killer bee. I passed within a foot of that swarm. The buzzing of so many bees was so powerful I could almost feel it in my body. I moved as quickly and as passively as I possibly could by them, and luckily wasn't stung despite the close proximity. I would be lying if I told you I wasn't nervous walking by that swarm. Especially being in such a narrow canyon, I would have had literally nowhere to run if they would have attacked me.
Cottonwood Creek narrows, right before I encounter bee swarm.
Eventually I made it out of the canyon and back on some high-ground. I was relieved to see some dark clouds creeping over the desert foothills toward me. Any reprieve from the heat is welcome in the desert, and believe it or not, it actually rained! I busted out my new Outdoor Research Helium hard-shell, and actually wore it for a half-an-hour while I got dumped on. It was refreshing to say the least. After nearly 14 miles of hiking (not counting the backtracking) it was getting late and I was exhausted. I pitched my shelter relatively near Cave Creek about 20 feet from the fence-line of a private ranch. It was the only flat spot I could find that was both elevated and relatively separated from the creek itself, which I didn't want to camp by because of all the animal sign I saw. In fact I was awoken multiple times in the night by snorting javelina coming from the direction of the creek. I knew I had made a smart choice by staying away. When they got too close I would loudly clear my throat or yawn, just to let them know I was there. Of course they left me alone.
Rain is coming
After a restless night of sleep I broke camp at 7am and hit Skunk Tank Trail #246 headed west. It was pleasant hiking in the cool morning air under a still rising sun. Eventually though it got hot, and by the time I connected with Quien Sabe Trail #250 the heat was bothering me, and my feet were getting brutalized on the especially rough trail. By the time I made the ascent of Skull Mesa my feet were killing me, but a heavy wind had appeared and the 20 mph gusts were keeping me cool. It's the nature of the desert, and hiking in general. You have to take the good with the bad. Even when you're tired and hurting and miserable, you have to hang on to the positive. I had no luck finding the Hohokam ruins I had heard were on top of Skull Mesa, but the view of the surrounding desert made the hard climb worth it.
I was exhausted and feeling like hell by the time I returned to my Jeep after a near 14 mile day with tons of ups and downs and elevation changes. Honestly, it wouldn't have been as bad if it wasn't so damn hot, and the terrain so rocky. It made me miss the Pacific Northwest. Overall, I can confidently say that this route is by far the best in this area. Sure it's challenging, but its remote ( I saw zero people on Friday, and 1 group on Saturday), there are plenty of views, and a good smattering of high-and-low desert ecosystems. The only drawbacks are that water is very scarce, trails generally suck and are hard to follow, and there isn't any good place to camp when you reach Cave Creek near Seven Springs on day 1. Other than that, I had a blast.
This is my 3rd time backpacking into the Cave Creek area of Tonto National Forest. What I like about this spot is that the trailhead is a short 20 minute drive from my house, so it provides easy access to a pretty decent desert locale. Within a couple miles I left the day-hikers behind and seemingly had the entire backcountry to myself. In fact, I've never seen another backpacker (other than the ones in my group) in this area before. On this trip I left my Nikon at home and just took an older point-and-shoot Kodak. Honestly it felt quite liberating leaving the Nikon behind even though my photos didn't turn out as well. It's actually quite nice not feeling obligated to constantly capture good photographs (not that I'm much of a photographer anyways). Instead I just took a shot when the mood struck me.
Cave Creek
In the interest of variety, I took a slightly different route than previous trips, and consequently missed the Hohokam petroglyphs, which is certainly one of the highlights of this trip. There was however still plenty to see. The landscape was gorgeous and the desert was a flurry of animal activity. I saw lots of birds including two cardinals and a red-tailed hawk. I also ran across the corpse of a grey fox who lie dead in the middle of the trail. It was a strange sight to see, as the recently dead fox looked very alive, like a taxidermied trophy one might see at Cabela's. I've seen a few large dead animals in the woods over the years. A drowned horse snagged on a dead-fall in the Rapid River in Idaho. A mutilated sea-lion on the Olympic Coast. Fresh deer remains from a mountain lion kill near Hawk Creek Falls in Washington. I've never seen an animal so freshly dead, without any apparent cause to its death. If you look at the photo it looks like its body is configured as if running. The head and ears are up, and the eyes were wide open. I saw no wounds or signs of trauma anywhere. It's as if the poor fox just dropped dead while running down the trail. Maybe its ticker just gave out.
Gray fox
I camped at a picturesque little spot on Cave Creek. I collected enough wood that I decided to just cowboy camp on the ground near the fire. It was a peaceful night's sleep under the stars, but with a cool breeze and zero cloud cover, it got a little chilly. I awoke cold a few times during the night. I've had the same 20 degree sleeping bag for nearly 5 years, and I've been noticing a marked decrease in performance in the last year or so. It seems I always sleep cold in the backcountry anymore with this bag. I think it's time to finally invest in a new one. At 3am I piled on some big logs, which bought me about 3 hours of uninterrupted sleep.
Cave Creek camp.
At one point during the night I heard the calls of coyote's carried through the dark by the midnight breeze. I thought for sure they had found the fox, but on the way out the next day, the fox was still untouched.
Overall it was an enjoyable experience. Hopefully the first of many backpacking trips this year. I've got permits for 3 nights in Paria Canyon in southern Utah, which should be amazing, but I would like to get out as much as possible this year. It's just so hard for me to do with real life always keeping me home.
I have decided Spring time must be the best time for desert hiking. I've hiked along Cave Creek between Seven Springs and Spur Cross before, and frankly there isn't much color to see; just a dead sea of drab. But in the Spring everything is different... Everything is growing... The flowers are blooming. The sea of drab is now a variety of browns and greens, and the California Poppy has painted the hillsides gold. It is a beautiful sight indeed.
Climbing into the Cave Creek trail system.
We started on the Skunk Tank trail with a little climbing. A slight breeze kept the scorching sun at bay. Not that we have reached summer temps yet, but just hiking under direct sunlight minus any shade can be tough (at least for a north-man like myself). But the wind was nice, and we made short work of the climbs. My new friend Dave Creech (aka Wilderness Dave) came along for the trip, and I had a fun time picking his brain. The talk was mostly about blogging and photography, and It made for some really cool conversation.
Enter the poppies
Things turned serious really quick when we hit the poppy fields. The wildflowers were everywhere, and they turned the hills gold. It made for some excellent photo opportunities.
Covered in poppies
Golden hills near Cave Creek
Eventually, after a little backtracking, we found a camp for the night. It was a pretty grass-covered spot on the banks of Cave Creek. The water was clear and blue and delicious, and it was surrounded by gold-painted poppy-covered hills. It was all very beautiful.
Cave Creek camp
Opposite direction view of Cave Creek near our camp.
It was an excellent, but short trip. I am always grateful to get out backpacking, even if its only an overnighter. The wildflowers really add a whole new dimension to desert hiking, and I encourage everyone to get out right now and enjoy them while they are in full bloom. They truly are a beautiful sight, and my photos don't really do the scene justice.
I tried out the Sawyer squeeze filter for the first time. It worked as advertised, but I haven't developed an overall opinion yet, so keep an eye out for the review sometime down the road.
Also used the Solo Stove again. Worked awesome. I'll have a review for it later this week.
One last note, I did manage to slip on a rock and fall in the creek during one of our many crossings on the way out Sunday. I kept my feet underneath me, so I only got wet up to the knees, but it could have been disastrous, as I had my Nikon on my hip, in the camera bag, with the lid ajar for easy access.
I haven't had to make a serious water crossing since I moved to Arizona, and frankly I miss them. There isn't anything as exciting as fording a freezing cold, fast flowing river.
You may be wondering why Steve only has one pant leg in this picture. He smashed his knee on a rock pretty badly, and it was bleeding all over the place. When we stopped to doctor it up he took his pant leg off, and kept it off for easier access in the future (since the band-aids kept falling off). Plus, he didn't want his pants soaked with blood, being that we were in prime bear country in Montana.
Okay, here we have a semi-serious crossing at Fossil Creek in Arizona. It made for a nice rock-hop.
This photo of Cave Creek is typical of most of the water crossings you have to make in the desert. The water level is low, and the water itself is stagnant.
Today is my sweet Sarah's 29th (wink wink) birthday, and I dedicate this blog to her. She is not only an amazing girlfriend, she is also my partner-in-adventuring. It's so awesome having a significant other who shares a passion for the outdoors.
The first thing you'll notice about this picture is how beautiful she is. Having a beautiful woman along really adds an exciting extra-dimension to hiking. I really have to be on my toes when preforming various outdoor related skills, otherwise I might make myself look like an idiot, and shatter my mountain-man image.
I really like this shot because she reminds me of a really hot Indiana Jones or Francisco de Coronado. She's an adventurer, an explorer, a conquistador. She's holding a set of binoculars in her hands, looking up at the mountain, and thinking, "nothing will stand in my way".
She has great outdoor instincts. In this shot she waits for the first group to reach the other side before she steps into the swamp. That way she would be warned if there were any unseen hazards in the swamp like quicksand or venomous snakes.
You'll notice that she has a little bit of swagger in this shot. That's because this was the end of a 3 day backpacking trip; her longest ever. Three days with the bugs and critters and things that go bump in the night. We also climbed the 2nd highest mountain in Arizona. Right now she is thinking, "I came, I saw, I conquered". She's feeling like a bad ass, and already thinking about the next adventure.
I feel pretty lucky to have her. Happy Birthday Sarah, I love you.
Scorched earth... That's what the desert can feel like sometimes. I've been in Phoenix since June and my body still hates the heat. When the relentless sun beats down on me and the sweat pours from my brow in buckets, I long for the shade of some pine trees. All I get instead is a sharp headache and a bout of nausea. So, I was a little worried about my upcoming backpacking trip in the Sonoran Desert. This would be my first outing with the Arizona Backpacking Club, and my first all-desert hike. Luckily my personal nurse and wonderful girlfriend Sarah came with me. It's a comforting feeling having a genuine life saver on hand, just in case I pass out from heat exhaustion.
Sarah standing next to a gnarly Giant Saguaro.
The first day of the hike was all in open desert. The shade was virtually non-existent as we hiked along dry creek beds and across broad mesas. Despite the heat I mostly felt pretty good. Except for a couple short but steep climbs, the trail was mostly flat. But it was so damn hot! I was soaked in sweat in an hour. One particularly brutal climb I felt my stomach rumbling and a twinge of pain in the back of my head. "Here we go again" I thought. I just put my head down and kept moving. Luckily it only lasted about 15 minutes before I felt good again. The mountains were gorgeous, but I didn't take as many pictures as I normally would. I kept feeling like I was holding the group up when I stopped. It's the one thing I hate about hiking in groups.
Shade? I think not.
Even though the trail was relatively flat, the hiking wasn't always easy. I swear every desert plant has thorns, barbs, spikes, or some other cruel implement intent on causing bodily harm if you get too close. The trail wasn't well maintained, and mesquite and prickly pear cactus were always scratching at my arms and poking at my clothes. My Therma-Rest Z Lite strapped to the top of my pack was constantly getting snagged too... I don't think I'll bring it on a desert hike again.
Cactus land.
But the going was relatively smooth. We saw some Hohokam petroglyphs that were over 700 years old. It looked to me like they were depicting hunting scenes, but it was hard to tell. I would have liked to spend more time studying them. I took tons of photos, but unfortunately none came out that great.
Petroglyph
Our camp at Cave Creek was nothing like the desert we hiked through. It's crazy how much the environment in the desert can change around the waterways. Instead of Saguaros and sagebrush we were camped under sycamores and cottonwoods. I used my Solo Stove for the first time, and while it performed really well boiling water, I still haven't formed an overall opinion about it, so I think I'll use it a few more times before I write a review.
Cave Creek Camp
The hike out on Sunday followed Cave Creek to the trail head at Seven Springs. It was nice because there was a lot of shade, and the trail was soft dirt instead of hard-pan desert and rock. Overall it was an enjoyable yet uneventful hike. The only wildlife I saw was a crayfish that darted from underneath a rock as I bent down to filter water. Other than that I saw nothing. Not a single bird or even a lizard, which I normally see everywhere hiking in the desert. But it was still an awesome time. Just being out there was enough
for the first time, and while it performed really well boiling water, I still haven't formed an overall opinion about it, so I think I'll use it a few more times before I write a review.
