Late night hike

Mark and I had hiked a few weeks ago with my old missionary companion Hilary flake, formerly known as Winfield, her husband Ben, and Amber.(A friend from my mission as well who lived in South Portland ME.) It was just a small hike through the Superstition Mountains that didn't seem to take long at all and it was very beautiful. We stop ed hiking when we came to a sweet little camp site next to the stream and chatted a while until it was close to dark, then headed back to the parking lot where Hilary, Amber and some of Ben's family started a fire and roasted hot dogs. Sadly Mark and I had to leave early to watch John and Jill's little girl, so they could go on a date.in our conversation back at the camp site Mark and I had asked Ben if it was ok to camp there and he said that his brother had done it with out any problems, so we might be able to do it as well. I was really excited about that because I hate having to pay to to camp. Plus the spot was nice and a beautiful hike. A few days later I told my sister Roxanne about it and said we should go on a camp out there. She readily agreed and had Paul get work off for the weekend of March 13th. We invited a few different couples to go but in the end all who were able to go were Roxanne and Paul, John and Jill Haggerty, and ourselves. Bryan Anderson and his wife bailed out the last minute which was sad but maybe we can camp with them another time. Friday the 12th is when we were all supposed to be packed up and ready to go as soon as Paul got off work at 5:00pm. Of course we didn't get going as soon as we had hoped, but something funny that Jill had to confess while we were at our apartment before leaving was that she was pregnant. She gets so sick but she said that she was heavily medicated and would be fine. Roxanne is 8 months pregnant and if Kristen Anderson is pregnant too, so if her and Bryan hadn't bailed out on the camp out that would have been three pregnant women and two kids. Well because we had two pregnant women in our group we couldn't just rush to the trail head with out stopping for something to eat at Jack In The Box. Once we finally got all of our packs and headlamps on, we headed down the trail in the dark because I don't think we got started until around 7:40 give or take. I was packing Seth while Mark carried our heavy pack with all the rest of our stuff. John and Jill each had a pack on while they had Daphne who is a year and a half walk. This was Daphne's first camp out/ hike. Roxanne and Paul each had a full size pack on while Paul carried in his hands a bad of fire wood. I forgot to mention that I was also carrying in my hands a baby chair/ crib for Seth to sleep in hopefully. I was leading the way most of the way really because I felt that the sooner we could get there the sooner we could start a fire,warm up,set up camp,eat dinner,and get my pack with Seth off my back. Roxie and Paul were close behind me and John,Jill,Daphne,and Mark brought up the rear. It was hard to see anything more than what was right in front of us because it was really dark and the head lamps were only so bright. The trail was not always consistent going in and out of the wash so that was a challenge also. It had rained a ton during the week so there was more water in the wash and in the stream than Mark and I had encountered before on our hike with Hilary and Ben, so it changed things a bit. We had gotten to a point where we were unsure of what side of the stream to hike along side because we couldn't see that far ahead of us. I decided
to venture out on the left at some point and everyone Else followed Mark on the right. I chose to take the Left because it was the way that we had hiked the time before so I figured I should stick with what I knew. I found cavity in the side of the mountain where people had camped and had fires before but it was not a good place to settle for. Mark's flashlight went dead so he felt that he could no longer lead the way on that side. He crossed the stream at a narrow point to e on the same side as me, but he didn't know that I had come to a thick brush and steep rocks that i didn't think i could get through with Seth on my back without scratching the heck out of his face and legs in the sharp prickly bushes of Arizona. Everyone followed Mark to the place where I was by the cave and for all I knew they crossed because they couldn't go any further on there side without wading through deep water. Seth had been crying all the while i was climbing up big boulders and squeezing through brush to try and find a way that was safe for our group and when Mark and the others came over I suggested that we have some people take off there packs and go ahead to scout out a good path if there was one to see if we should continue to the place we intended to camp or if we should just stay at the cave. Mark and John did so and were gone for a little while. Meanwhile the pregos Roxie and Jill rested and I pulled Seth out of the pack to calm him down and give him a bottle. I could tell he was tired and frustrated that he couldn't sleep, plus he had cold hands and a cold little nose. Paul Said he was the one who needed to stay behind to protect the women and children. Paul grew anxious when Mark and John didn't come back,so he wanted to leave us to go look for them. Just as he was about to go he saw them coming back. When they came back, they said that someone Else had taken the camp site we wanted but that they found another one close by that was across the stream with a fire pit and more soft ground to pitch our tents on. They said it was seven minutes to the spot. We decided to all go rather than sleeping in the cave. It was 9:20 or so when we left that spot and we had a lot of trouble even leaving that spot. the second I put Seth back in the pack he stared crying and John with his pack on now was trying to go the way he and Mark had gone and was getting stuck in the thicket. It was a mess of people getting tuck and trapped and the stream seemed difficult for us to cross with such big back packs on and little kids and Roxie with her big pregnant belly. It was a bit of a stressful moment. Mark and John were thinking it seemed so easy when we didn't have our pack on. They kept saying did we go through right here? How did we do this earlier? So much for scouting out a safe path. There was no way we cold get through the brush that soon ended into deep water anyway so we had to cross the stream were Mark had crossed. I fallowed after him with Seth crying so loud. It was a balancing act with Seth on my back and the baby chair in my hands, but I made it ok then we struggled to help everyone Else across with out falling in. I couldn't go any further with Seth crying the way he was, so I decided to take him out and carry him in my arms. I had mark carry the chair for me and I gave him my head lamp to lead the way since his light died. I walked in front of Roxanne and Paul and Mark was behind them I kept asking for light to take my next couple of steps, but was sure to not walk unless I knew it was safe. Roxanne behind me thought that she would try to shine her headlamp in my direction to help me out. She did so thinking her next step was planed out safely when she underestimated the distance and fell right down. All I heard was her yelling my name on the way down as if she was cursing me. I turn around and she is hurt and on the ground. I rush over to her and ask if she is alright and she says with a little bit of pain and water in her eyes "you Jinxed me!" I told her before the the trip that I could see her falling since she was pregnant and a bit clumsy. I quickly ask if her stomach was alright and if the baby was ok because it looked like she fell on a jagged rock. She said that her stomach was fine and that it was her ankle. Our whole group now very concerned and gathered around Roxanne, wondering how bad she is hurt. She said she just needed a few minutes and that she might be ok to walk on it. I imagined that she would be so hurt that we would have to Carry her all the way back to the car, but luckily that was not the case. I was relieved that she didn't fall on her stomach. A sprained ankle was nothing compared to that. Jill offered to Carry her pack but Roxie refused. Jill decided to give me her head lamp since I was carrying Seth. We continued on and found a nice part of the trail and crossed the stream once more before arriving at the spot that John and Mark had found. Mark quickly started a fire and we all began to set up camp. The site was not as flat as our desired camp site but it was way better than the cave. Everyone was happy that we made it despite the fact that we didn't get there till 10:00 pm or so. even though it was not all that late into the night we were all tired. Despite feeling tired we stayed up even later just to enjoy the warmth of the fire and cook our foil dinners. Seth and Daphne fell asleep almost the second we got there. I was glad that I dragged that baby chair all the way there because it was nice to be able to just plop him in it and give him a bottle the minute we got there so that both Mark and I had free hands to set up the tent and so forth. We all chatted and enjoyed one an others company until it got so late that we needed to go to bed. A few people had stepped in the water by accident and had wet socks and shoes. Mark was one of them and so before he and I went to bed I put his sock on the rocks by the hot Cole's of the fire to dry. I was so cold all night that when I hear Daphne in the other tent crying I decided to just get up and start up the fire again. I discovered that Marks socks had not only dried but the toes of the socks were crispy and black. Mark didn't mind to much he was just glad he had dry socks. We all had breakfast and hung around for a while then packed up to head back. It was a fun trip even if it was short but John and Mark had a test to study for on Monday , so we all needed to head back. It was an interesting little trip and for a little bathroom humor John accidentally ran into Roxanne and Paul trying to go to the bathroom in the dark which we all laughed about and the next morning some early morning hikers ran into Jill going to the bathroom and were bold enough to say hi while she was going. I hope Jill doesn't hate me for putting that in my blog. lol.