Saturday morning we headed to Phoenix to spend the day with my parents and sister. Around 11:30 we headed over to Texas Roadhouse to celebrate Mom's 90th birthday, quite an amazing thing! We relaxed and caught up the rest of the day and evening. First thing in the morning we headed back to the campground due to the 24 hour rule, (don't leave your campsite unoccupied more than 24 hours.)

 Monday we did a local hike here in the basin along a 2 track, then we followed a wash for a couple of miles back out to the lake to follow the shoreline home. Tuesday we decided to drive out to hwy 288 towards Young. The road goes around the east end of the lake and over above the north side. We found the Parker Creek trail head at an elevation of 5060' and hiked upward in a tight canyon where very little sunlight shines. The trail was beautiful, with lots of tall pine trees, some balsams, yet we still saw occasional prickly pear cactus as we climbed. As we climbed higher we encountered snow along the trail in various areas. Finally around 6000' we were hiking through a foot of wet snow up the narrow trail. After around an hour and 40 minutes of hiking up the trail at around 6160' I felt we may as well turn back due to the snow depths and still having 900' of elevation to climb. The views in the canyon were great, both directions on the trail. Around noon we finally found a sunny out cropping and stopping for a quick lunch. The warm sunshine felt wonderful on our backs as we ate lunch. 

As we drove home we found several great canyon views along the north side of the lake. We also found some nice stealth campsites that we may utilize in the future.

 

       Wednesday we got up and after breakfast drove to a trailhead a few miles away and hiked the Thompson trail which was a nice trail up in the mountains on the south side of Lake Roosevelt. We had views of the lake on our left and the 4 Peaks on the right as we hiked it to the end 3 miles away. Joyce returned by the same trail and I decide to make it somewhat of a loop by hiking the roadway along the lake back to an old cemetery and back up the mountain to the trail and back to our truck. It was a nice sunny day in the 60's.

 Stormy weather across the lake

Thursday was supposed to usher in a winter storm with windy, cloudy weather that would bring much lower temps and snow at elevations above 3000'. (we camp around 2200' thank goodness) 

 Snowy mountains up by the Pigeon Trail

 Ready to go on the Pigeon Trail

 This is a mountain round-about due to the very tight turn

 Thought we left the snow back in the UP

We decided to try a new trail called the Pigeon trail down towards Tonto Basin. We drove on a challenging forest road about 11 miles (45 minutes) to reach the trail head. The road twisted and climbed it's way to about 5600 feet elevation and consisted of some ice and snow covered areas maybe 3 to 500 feet long just to make matters interesting. The trail was a nice change with hiking thru some tall pines and juniper trees. The trail was about 50% snow covered to start with and after a mile or so it became mostly snow as we climbed in elevation. After an hour or so we came to an area that we could not determine where the trail was. The wind had picked up and the clouds were coming a bit lower over the mountains, so we decided it was time to make a u-turn and head back to the truck. 

That evening and overnight the winds blew with strong gusts as the storm front passed thru. In the morning we awoke to nice sunshine, but very cold temperatures. The cold temps remained for the next 5 days with daily highs only in the 40's and nights in the 20's. Needless to say we went thru a bit more propane than we normally do. Even though it was chilly we had nice sunshine every day and we were able to hike in the lower elevations. Most afternoons we could sit out in the sun and read and relax. Hard to complain about that!

 Along the Cottonwood Trail

 These folks were from Kentucky & Illinois

 An Arizona forest

On the Pigeon Trail

After arriving at Windy Hill campground we spent Monday and Tuesday doing chores around camp mostly. Joyce unpacked all the boxed goods that we had been carrying in the truck to keep them from freezing and found places to store them in the trailer. She also swept the trailer out and washed the windows inside and out. 

I washed all the road salt and grime off the exterior of the trailer on Monday. Tuesday I gave the same treatment to the truck. 

Before we left Michigan, I removed around a foot of snow that had accumulated on top off the trailer. In doing so I put too much pressure on the vent cover to the bathroom. Over time the sun causes these vinyl covers to become brittle and easy to break. We have never liked the fan in the bath vent, as it was always noisy (one speed only) and often rubbed on the screen making even more noise. We have a "Fantastic Fan", which is a 3 speed, in our pick-up camper and love it. So I ordered up a new Fantastic Fan and brought it with us. I spent a couple of hours Tuesday removing the old duct taped unit and installing our new FF. It was easy to install and it works so much better.

Starting Wednesday we were to get out into the mountains and do a daily hike, usually somewhere between 4 to 8 miles. I write more on that next time.

Our campsite overlooks Tonto National Monument 

(ancient cliff / cave dwellings on the mountain side)

We were out of bed by 6 on Friday morning of the 4th. After a quick breakfast, loading the truck with items that we didn't want to freeze overnight, draining the waterlines down, locking all doors, and turning the stat down to 46 we headed out the driveway with the Sunset Creek following behind. It was just a few minutes before 8 and we were headed to the Southwest, Arizona to be specific. We took US 2 across the UP and went thru Wisconsin passing by Green Bay (where the Packers would be playing the following evening), Oshkosh, and over through Madison. We continued into Iowa at Dubuque, over thru Des Moines and south to Missouri. Sometime around midnight we found a nice Wal-Mart a hour or 2 north of Kansas City to catch 5 or 6 hours sleep. 

Day 2 we continued on thru KC and on into Kansas. We crossed the state from NE to SW on mostly 2 lane highways and ended up cutting thru the panhandle of Oklahoma, followed by a couple of hours in Texas and on into New Mexico. We were getting tired and found a nice state park near Santa Rosa to settle in for the night around 8. After taking nice hot showers we were ready to read a bit and hit the sack. 

Day 3 we headed out before daylight, fueled up, and drove mostly hwy 60 across NM to AZ. We went thru Show Low down to Globe, where we stopped at Walmart to buy some supplies before heading out to Roosevelt Lake here in Tonto NF. We ended up finding the same campsite we used last winter and were all settled in by mid afternoon. 

Suset from our campsite at Windy Hill CG

Saw this guy near our campsite

A Super Cub flying by our campsite with the 4 Peaks Wilderness in the background

Christmas Fun with the Grandchildren...

Family fun playing games together

    We have enjoyed the past several days with our son Jeb, his wife Lisa and our grandchildren Olivia and Cole. When they arrived on Wednesday everyone was excited to see the abundant snow we had on the ground up here in the UP.

While here they enjoyed sledding down our hills, ice skating at a local rink in Pickford, snow shoeing and several evenings soaking in the hot tub. Grandma cooked up some fantastic meals and we enjoyed playing both board games and card games together. It was an enjoyable time together that went far too quickly. 

Lisa and Olivia heading back up our hill with the sled

A nice sled ride in the woods

Jeb, Olivia and Lisa skating at Pickford arena

 

Grandma hauling Olivia and Cole down to the sledding hill

 Grandma and Cole got a bit off course on their sled run

Cole and Roman enjoying the snowy outdoors

Christmas Fun and a some not so fun...

Daddy (Sawyer), Mommy (Karen) & Uncle Alan playing with Haddon

      Our family Christmas adventures started with a trip downstate to have a family celebration together at Joyce's sister's home on Sunday the 23rd. We stayed with Joyce's parents for a couple of nights while down in the Mason area. We had two new additions to the Stuart Christmas; Haddon, born this past summer to Karen (our niece) & Sawyer, at his first Christmas, and Melinda a lovely young lady from North Carolina, recently engaged to our youngest nephew, Scott. We were missing our daughter Jenni, who is enjoying a month in South Africa with her boyfriend Songo and his family, and Lisa stayed home with our granddaughter Olivia who was recovering from the flu. We had a great time together, enjoying a wonderful dinner, opening presents (the kids), playing games and watching a slideshow of our nephew Alan's recent mission trips to Africa.

Cole enjoying his new truck with his Great Aunt Nancy

Haddon checking out his new outfit...Sawyer seems to smell something, 

might be time for a new diaper!

 Great grandpa playing with Cole

Nap time for Scott & Melinda

     Joyce and I drove home to the UP on Monday. Some time during the night we both ended up with the flu...so Christmas day was not one we would love to repeat any time soon. We received an e-mail letting us know we weren't the only ones down with the flu...Scott, Melinda & Jeff (our brother-in-law) all came down with the flu the same night we did. Jeb & Lisa were planning to come up Christmas day but delayed until Wednesday to give us a chance to recover. By Wednesday we were much better off and were able to enjoy our Christmas a day late. 

Olivia & Cole opening a gift from Aunt Jenni

The kids and Lisa enjoying Jenni's Photobook

Of course Cole thought the box it came in was more fun

 The kids helping Grandma open a gift

Olivia with her new pull-over towel that Grandma made her for Christmas

 Cole enjoyed playing with the ribbon

Cole would rather stand than rock in his rocking chair

     After enjoying a nice supper together Jeb, Lisa and Olivia went outdoors to enjoy some time in the hot tub. A great way to top off our delayed Christmas.

 With temps in the teens the hot water feels pretty good

After her daddy dared her, Olivia made several runs through the snow in her bathing suit. The hot tub made for a quick recovery.

Merry Christmas everyone!

It's Looking Like Christmas..

     Shortly after daybreak yesterday morning it started to snow. It came down all day long at a steady pace and by 4 in the afternoon we had 6 or 7 inches of fresh snow on the ground. I got the snowblower out and blew out the drive and various walking paths we have while Joyce shoveled the the porch, deck and apron in front of the garage. It continued to snow and by the time we woke up this morning there was at least another 7 or 8 inches on the ground that we cleaned out yesterday. Needless to say there is no doubt we will have a white Christmas in Michigan's UP.

The trailer is buried in snow...it is ready head to Arizona for sure!

 Here's the hot tub and deck a few days ago

This is the hot tub and deck this morning again covered with more snow since we cleared it yesterday afternoon

I shot this thru the window in the den last night...the LP tank seems to have grown in size