The Schweitzer’s Place

A nice weekend in Old Orchard Beach – camping near the beach and enjoying some down time.

Over the fourth of July weekend Brendan and I decided to give camping a try.

We decided to work our way into the real rough stuff by starting in the living room.  We rolled out the Thermarest and the
Ridgerest mat on the living room floor and placed the bags on top of them. We fell asleep and for some unknown reason Brendan was wide awake when 1 AM rolled around. After an hour of negotiation and some discussion with mom, we fell back asleep. Around 4 AM we had to check the clock every 10 minutes while we waited for 5 AM – our official wake up time.

This weekend we took a night and hung out on Mt Graham in Safford, Arizona.  It was very cool in the morning and as we rode up the road to go for a hike we watched the temperature drop into the mid 30′s.  There was still snow and the ground and the road was closed.

So, we turned around and went back to the lower trails.  We hiked for a few miles on the Lady Bug Trail.  It was very nice.  The dogs loved it.  Too bad Brandon’s tender little feet started to get cuts and scrapes on them.  We cut it short and went back for some rest and relaxation at the campsite.  Brad read some in the hammock while Deanna did homework in the camping chairs.

Our First Hike Together . . . . This trip was awesome! We jumped in our new Jeep o­n Wednesday night and started our drive. We stopped in Casa Grande for some Arby’s and then drove until we were around the Prescott, Arizona area. We stopped for a nap at o­ne of the rest stops. We snuggled-up in our sleeping bags in the back of the jeep. After sleeping like babies, we finished our drive to Havasu Canyon. We arrived around 11 AM, which was a little later than we wanted. Oh well, we are always a little later than we want when we go o­n our trips.

The hike down the canyon was beautiful. We made a lot of stops and took it nice and easy. Partly to enjoy the scenery and partly to rest. This was the first time we backpacked together and it was quite tiring. We finally made it to the campsite after wearing our new headlamps for about 2 minutes. It is a good thing that they are pretty bright. When the sun goes down in the canyon, it is pitch black!