Aravaipa and other adventures. So anyway this is some of my thoughts on Aravaipa and camping in general. Our adventure really began after the 3 hours of driving. Best way to start a camping trip is to get your truck stuck in the stream. It took us probably 20-30 minutes to finally get unstuck and parked. After that Derek decided to fall in the stream and scrape up his knee. OK, we are off to a great start.
I must say that it was really beautiful. Everything was so green. Lots of trees and water. About half of the time was hiking in the water which usually only came to about mid calf but sometimes got up over the knees. The rest of the time you just kind of make your way through the brush and you might occasionally find a trail. Debris wrapped about trees showed just how high flash flooding can get.
It was amazing to see how much the canyon walls and rock formations could change by going just a little way down stream. The weather was so nice for the hike in. Shade from the canyon walls and from trees as well as being cooled by the water... ahhh. It was great. At about noon thirty we found a little ledge in the rock by the stream that we sat in and had lunch. After lunch we continued on down stream. A little while later we ran into some people that Michael and I knew. They told us about a camping spot a little ways down. I don't think we ever found the one they were talking about but we did find one that we liked. Plenty of trees for those of us who brought hammocks to sleep in. We set up camp and started a small camp fire in the fire ring that was there. Why did we need a fire? Ambience of course... Well that and for our MEAT. Yes, kabobs are a good thing. I must say that even though the rustic fire was very nice my portable Iso-Butane/Propane camping stove was very handy. It boils water really fast. For all of the coffee, hot chocolate, and hot apple cider we made we didn't even use half of the 8oz fuel can I brought. Wish I had known how little fuel it would use so that Ryan didn't have to carry a spare fuel can. Oh well.
One other really useful thing that I had was this camping hammock that I got at Popular Outdoor Outfitters. The Amazonas Moskito- Traveller. The total weight of the hammock is one pound and it has mosquito netting built in. It packs really small. The hammock plus sleeping bag = really good sleep.
During the night it sprinkled a little then in the morning after we put all of our stuff where it wouldn't get wet it rained for a while. Other than that bit of wetness we had pleasant weather for the hike back.
Only two other things of note. One is the water filter bottles that we brought. They filter out 99.9 percent of Guardia and other contaminates. This means we could filter the water from the stream and so we didn't have to carry in so much water. The other thing is the FRS radios we brought. They make car trips so much easier. They are also good for hiking when you don't want to keep your group all together. So this concludes my ramblings on Aravaipa and camping in general. | 
