- Joined
- Apr 27, 2011
- Messages
- 3,198
This thread is two weeks late. Pretend it happened this weekend, ok?
I have a cheapish kayak that I love to take on the AZ lakes (you do know that there are a bunch of lakes in Arizona, right??!?). One of the things I've wanted to do for the longest time was to kayak to some remote spot and then camp out over night, away from the generators and norteño music and overflowing garbage. A pre-planned weekend camping that everyone backed out of gave me the chance.
To get to Apache Lake from Phoenix, you have to drive appx 13 miles on a dirt road called the Apache Trail (can you guess what Tribal members contributed in a significant way to building this road when the Roosevelt Dam construction was first being mobilized?). It's steep, it's windy, it's awesome.
Launch was uneventful, other than that I gave my lifejacket to some kids camping near the ramp who had a kayak themselves they wanted to use. Good kids; it was hanging on a tree when I got back the next day. I took off and had a nice leisurely paddle for a few hours, dipping in and out of coves, looking for potential campsites and also just looking around. Apache Lake is really steep and majestic on the north side, and steep and the tiniest bit boring on the south side, so I stuck to the north.
I found lots of potential spots, none of them perfect (too cramped, too swampy, too many bees), and as I explored I struggled with the thought of continuing to look or to just pick a place and make due. Along the way I saw this snake, which I did not leap on and immediately skin and turn into a snakeskin belt like any other self-respecting patch-wielding WSSer would have done. I just took a pic then got back to paddling
This is me in the boat. Boonie hat, the ONLY type of hat that should be worn in Arizona? Check. Agony Column tshirt, best metal band ever? Check. Mark Wohlwend neck knife? Check.
Long story short, I found an epic deserted beach. I selected a sandy spot, dropped my gear, and breathed a giant sigh of relief. THEN I took a dip, took a nap, and setup my site: old shower curtain and sleeping bag, existing firepit with rearranged rocks for maximum fire-i-tude, and an open Guinness placed into one of my cargo shorts pockets.
View south from my campsite.
As I was idling around my site, I heard the sound of running water and thought WFT. I went back up the beach and found a sweet little stream feeding into the lake. Obviously this 'beach' was formed by the massive floods we can get out here during monsoon season, and when it's not flooding then sometimes you can get intermittent springs such as what fed this stream. Wanted to explore a bit before I lost light for the day, so I knifed up and headed back into the boonies.
Maiden voyage of my Becker Bk-16. Yes, I ghetto-modded the etch with a sharpie. Also forgot to tighten the bolts before heading into the wilderness (I've got ten billion KA-BARs... how the heck did I forget to tighten the bolts first thing??!?).
A coworker made me this alder walking stick which I love. I was surprised at how lush it was along this stream; I had been expecting harsh desert badlands.
I had long wanted to try eating prickly pear pads, so I found one with decently healthy looking juvenile pads and cut some free.
Along the way, I also decided to leave behind a figure-four deadfall. Having been on BFC for a year now, building a f4 is kinda like batoning... you gotta try at least one. I was STOKED to actually get it up and balanced. Baited it with some leftover pizza. In the morning, I came back to find it sprung but nobody home. A good start.
Dark now. Time to get the fire started, get some serious drinking going, and get food. Roasted the cactus pads, carved some chopsticks (got this idea from Widerstand; genius!!!) since I forgot eating utensils, and had a very calm and peaceful night under amazing stars with no human interference. About as heavenly as dirt time can get.
Next morning was my chance to get back up that stream for a good distance and see what I could see, before returning home. Partway up it split into TWO streams, so I randomly picked a fork. I followed the stream up a steep decline, and came to this amazing little grotto. Clearly at some point the water hauls ass through here and over the years carved a cave out of the solid rock. Kind of a magical spot... a little waterfall, a deep pool, a shady cave, and a perfectly carved smooth stone seat to sit in and look down the valley.
The view back down the canyon from where I came:
A pool down in the canyon carved by the water.
A beehive on the way back. BLM says that in AZ all wild bees should be considered africanized, so I was a little spooked. Thankfully Oprah was nowhere to be found.
Time to head back. One last look back at my spot, then a little glamor shot of my Wohlwend neck knife
I spotted a bald eagle eating something. I like to think it was a rattlesnake, so along with the cactus it was like a living representation of the Mexican flag.
Ooooh.
Aaaah.
I'm an Apache Lake fan!!
I have a cheapish kayak that I love to take on the AZ lakes (you do know that there are a bunch of lakes in Arizona, right??!?). One of the things I've wanted to do for the longest time was to kayak to some remote spot and then camp out over night, away from the generators and norteño music and overflowing garbage. A pre-planned weekend camping that everyone backed out of gave me the chance.
To get to Apache Lake from Phoenix, you have to drive appx 13 miles on a dirt road called the Apache Trail (can you guess what Tribal members contributed in a significant way to building this road when the Roosevelt Dam construction was first being mobilized?). It's steep, it's windy, it's awesome.
Launch was uneventful, other than that I gave my lifejacket to some kids camping near the ramp who had a kayak themselves they wanted to use. Good kids; it was hanging on a tree when I got back the next day. I took off and had a nice leisurely paddle for a few hours, dipping in and out of coves, looking for potential campsites and also just looking around. Apache Lake is really steep and majestic on the north side, and steep and the tiniest bit boring on the south side, so I stuck to the north.
I found lots of potential spots, none of them perfect (too cramped, too swampy, too many bees), and as I explored I struggled with the thought of continuing to look or to just pick a place and make due. Along the way I saw this snake, which I did not leap on and immediately skin and turn into a snakeskin belt like any other self-respecting patch-wielding WSSer would have done. I just took a pic then got back to paddling
This is me in the boat. Boonie hat, the ONLY type of hat that should be worn in Arizona? Check. Agony Column tshirt, best metal band ever? Check. Mark Wohlwend neck knife? Check.
Long story short, I found an epic deserted beach. I selected a sandy spot, dropped my gear, and breathed a giant sigh of relief. THEN I took a dip, took a nap, and setup my site: old shower curtain and sleeping bag, existing firepit with rearranged rocks for maximum fire-i-tude, and an open Guinness placed into one of my cargo shorts pockets.
View south from my campsite.
As I was idling around my site, I heard the sound of running water and thought WFT. I went back up the beach and found a sweet little stream feeding into the lake. Obviously this 'beach' was formed by the massive floods we can get out here during monsoon season, and when it's not flooding then sometimes you can get intermittent springs such as what fed this stream. Wanted to explore a bit before I lost light for the day, so I knifed up and headed back into the boonies.
Maiden voyage of my Becker Bk-16. Yes, I ghetto-modded the etch with a sharpie. Also forgot to tighten the bolts before heading into the wilderness (I've got ten billion KA-BARs... how the heck did I forget to tighten the bolts first thing??!?).
A coworker made me this alder walking stick which I love. I was surprised at how lush it was along this stream; I had been expecting harsh desert badlands.
I had long wanted to try eating prickly pear pads, so I found one with decently healthy looking juvenile pads and cut some free.
Along the way, I also decided to leave behind a figure-four deadfall. Having been on BFC for a year now, building a f4 is kinda like batoning... you gotta try at least one. I was STOKED to actually get it up and balanced. Baited it with some leftover pizza. In the morning, I came back to find it sprung but nobody home. A good start.
Dark now. Time to get the fire started, get some serious drinking going, and get food. Roasted the cactus pads, carved some chopsticks (got this idea from Widerstand; genius!!!) since I forgot eating utensils, and had a very calm and peaceful night under amazing stars with no human interference. About as heavenly as dirt time can get.
Next morning was my chance to get back up that stream for a good distance and see what I could see, before returning home. Partway up it split into TWO streams, so I randomly picked a fork. I followed the stream up a steep decline, and came to this amazing little grotto. Clearly at some point the water hauls ass through here and over the years carved a cave out of the solid rock. Kind of a magical spot... a little waterfall, a deep pool, a shady cave, and a perfectly carved smooth stone seat to sit in and look down the valley.
The view back down the canyon from where I came:
A pool down in the canyon carved by the water.
A beehive on the way back. BLM says that in AZ all wild bees should be considered africanized, so I was a little spooked. Thankfully Oprah was nowhere to be found.
Time to head back. One last look back at my spot, then a little glamor shot of my Wohlwend neck knife
I spotted a bald eagle eating something. I like to think it was a rattlesnake, so along with the cactus it was like a living representation of the Mexican flag.
Ooooh.
Aaaah.
I'm an Apache Lake fan!!
You look like an absolute badass, too.
