Mogollon Rim Family Camp

A weekend getaway on the Mogollon Rim. A little family, a little fishing, a little beer. What can go wrong?

Our spot was a few miles from Potato Lake, west on the rim near Strawberry. It was surrounded by pinetrees and devoid of any camp hosts or nosey neighbors. Chirping birds and laughing kids were the only sounds that afternoon as I set up camp. I spent the evening grilling burgers over the fire, watching the kids cook s'mores, and drinking Rolling Rock from a can... Good times.

REI Kingdom 6

Saturday. The plan was to find a fishing hole. The Blue Ridge Reservoir had potential. Sarah and the kids and I piled into the Subaru. Jim's clan piled into his truck. We drove on rock strewn dirt roads for the next hour. The view on the rim was spectacular. The kids screamed every time we drove too close to the edge. After nearly two hours of driving we hit a snag. A tire on Jim's Ram blew. I mean, it was shredded. We changed it and motored on. Not five minutes later the tire pressure light in the Subaru flashed. Now we had a flat too. I honked the horn and flashed my lights to get Jim's attention. We were very remote with no phone service, on a labyrinth of crappy forest roads. We stopped to change the flat in a cloud of dust left by Jim's Ram as he disappeared around a bend. 

We rode that skimpy doughnut to the freeway, and stopped at the first highway gas station. I wandered into a garage next door and met an old man in overalls napping in the shade. He swapped our doughnut for a $45 used tire, and we were mobile again.

We made it back to our camp around 3:30 that afternoon. Jim was packing up his stuff, but there was a problem. He had another flat tire, and was out of spares. "Will you drive me to Cottonwood so I can get a new tire?" he asked me. "I have to be there before five."

Two hours later I was back at camp. The hole day spent driving and changing tires. All was not lost however, as I finally had the chance to propose to Sarah. We went on a little walk through the woods together. I got down on one knee in the dirt, She said yes.