The Rincons

It had been awhile since we had been up in the mountains and so we were excited to head up and find some good places to deer hunt for the fall.  The boys were looking forward to do some shooting, so they didn't care where we were going.  At the beginning of our trip, I turned and asked Kaden if we closed the garage door before we left.  He said he didn't think we did so we turned around after a 20 minute drive out.

Leaving Coolidge at 5am when the sun was coming up.

We headed towards Tucson and along the way we played the game the boys created, trouble trouble and double double.  Each time they see a police car they call out trouble trouble and get a point.  The double double is when they see a border patrol vehicle and is worth......well double!

We found our way to the foothills of the Rincons only to see a warning of what was to come.  Unfortunately we decided to drive up to see how far we could get, only to hit a barricade on the roadway.

The boys wanted to do some shooting, and having a forest closed for fire concerns we had to turn around and find anew place.  I was really bummed that we couldn't get out and do some pre-season scouting.  We found a spot to set up just outside of Oracle and target shoot.

Mason learning shooting pose and technique.

Kaden getting down and dirty to take his shot.

Mason finally found out how to use the scope to hit his target.

Next generation hunter-shooters.

It was a hot day out and temps reached 100 degrees by 10am.  We decided to head out and get home to some nice air conditioning and flight simulator games the boys have been enjoying.  I am thankful for these two knuckle heads as they keep me on my toes.  I love to be outdoors and it makes the time outside even better when your with family.

Snow and a two wheel drive

New Years day came and the boys and I decided to head out to get some action in the snow.  Mason has never really hada chance to play in the cold white stuff, and Kaden had little time before.  I watched the news for a week hoping to find somewhere close and saw that the Oracle area had good amounts of snow.  I was going to head up to the view areas of Mount Lemmon, but found the roads closed due to ice.

A trail off the Mount Lemmon access road offered good snowball ammo.

Kaden caps Mason with a nice one.

View up the trail towards the mountain.

So after finding a nice spot for snowball chucking, we headed further up the road to find some open areas to find some deer out sunning.  I drove up the road and pulled off the side a little bit to allow others comming up the mountain to get by.  That was my second mistake, my first you may ask?  Taking a 2 wheel drive to the snow along an icy, snow covered and muddy road.  I was doing ok until I pulled off to get out, then slid into the ditch.



The boys laughing as they realize daddy is stuck.  Thanks boys!



(Meltis-Weticus-Ballitus) Arizona southern desert snowman.

Catalina Mountain foothills.

Deer were here not to long ago, as well as a mountain lion tracks.

Mason was happy he had a warm hat to wear.

Looking towards San Manuel.

Question: What makes a man want to ride a bike in the cold?  Can you say shrinkage?!

On the road

Heather had her baby shower and the boys and I were on our own to figure out what we should do.  We loaded up the jeep and headed south for a day trip looking for javelina and just about anything that moved.  We drove just south of Coolidge along the canal system to an area that had allot of cattle water tanks.  We walked down into one of them and found allot of tracks from allot of animals.  We found deer, javelina, coyote, dog, and yes cow tracks.  We walked around the tank to get a good view and found this guy laying near by.

 After we left the water tank we drove along the canal for about an hour until it put us back on the road were we started.  Kaden wanted to see where the road to the north went so we drove up toward the mountain.  We found allot of cows on the side of the road grazing and found a dirt road to another cattle tank.  I asked the boys if they wanted to go check it out and they said yes.  We drove up to the mound and found us surrounded by 30 cows, all of which had horns and willing to skew the first thing that moved from the strange white box that pulled up.  We watched the cows come check us out, and got to see a few baby calves that could not have been a week or two old.  Off we went leaving the cows to play and us finding the next adventure.  I followed a dirt road that wound along the mountains for about an hour and came across a good find, petragliphs!  We stopped to check this rock field out and found ourselves among some cool images.  I wonder if they are real as there were hundreds of them in this area.  Regardless, we messed around looking at them anyways.

Kaden and Masons first encounter with rock art.

Mason wanted to get a better look at one he saw on a rock and off he went up this hill of tall rocks.

Just to get an idea on where we were, I took a picture next to mason looking down the rock field.  Mason crawled up the rocks without help (mom won't like that).  Kaden did not want us to get hurt so he asked us to head back down.





Looking down at Kaden while sitting next to Mason.



Just about every rock had something on it.  This makes me think most if not all of it is recent.

Kaden wanted to know what the ball thing hanging from the stick figure was.  How do you tell a kid that?

By the time we finished hanging around the rocks it was getting hot.  We headed back home to relax from our Saturday mini adventure.  We ended up seeing cows, a coyote, cows, ground squirrels, and more cows.  I was hoping to spot some dessert pigs or deer, but no luck this time of the day.

Fall Hunt 2009

My two brothers in-law Troy and Travis and myself got our tags for Unit 27 and 28.  These areas covered a good chunk of the white mountains so we had good hope to find something with antlers.  We pulled into the Blue Wilderness area south of Alpine Arizona around 2am for our October deer hunt.  Our campground was incredible with view and the best part of it was that we were alone in the campground.  We woke up around 9am and found ourselves chilled with a temp around 29 degrees.



Our camping area in fall colors.





Once we all got our stuff together we headed out to one of the trails.  Grant Creek was our first stop with a hike ahead of us.  We made our way up the drainage valley of Grant Creek for about a mile or two before we stopped to glass from above the trail.  Troy went ahead to get a better angle and we did not end up seeing him again for about 6 hours.

Travis and myself spent about 45 minutes trying to get a good view of the canyon and the canyon wall to the north of were we stopped.  We sat and waited for Troy to come back for about an hour, then made our way down the trail to see if we could find him.  You will have to get the full story from Troy for the rest of the day.  Needless to say, I got a good workout going back and forth along the trail.  The next day we got up late as we were just worn out from the hike the day before.  I ended up taking the morning to wonder off myself and see what I could find.  I started off on the Tutt Creek trail head and headed for a spring located a few miles down the canyon.

Along the trail down to the spring.

Found a used game trail along the creek.

Bear country and wishing nothing would pop out on me.

The last day of our time in the Blue Wilderness area I had to make a run to Alpine for fuel.  Along the way I snapped this picture of the canyon rock face and the only fall color around.  We ended up finishing our fall hunt with no success, but that's why they call it hunting!

Begining

Every morning I wake up, I am reminded that I am getting older and slower.  I have decided to create this blog as a reminder of the things I have done with my children and wife.  Perhaps someday, these experiences with my family will offer them cherished memories of family trips and events.