Day 22: Be careful of your cravings: Lost Dutchman State Park, Apache Junction, AZ
Not a lot to report today as we mostly stayed at the same park. We did take a trip into town when we changed campsites for the third time here. Nice thing is that the van makes it easy to move. No hooking up (the trailer to tow vehicle, come on, that term can mean other things).
Morning walk. Well, I attempted the Siphon Draw trail. I did not complete it. I did the first ~2km with an elevation gain of 185 meters. But, I had consumed half of my water at that point and followed the rules and turned around. The views are great and I took a bunch of pictures. See the galley below.
I was late to start as I did not awaken until 3.7 Amps. Normally I get out of bed at or before 0.7 Amps. Mrs Milddogs seems fine with that timing. Whoa, 3.7 Amps is not a time! Yes it is. Our solar charger lights up at first light (I should make a cover as it is right over my head). I can approximate the time by looking at the charging rate on sunny days. So, 3.7 Amps corresponded to 0820 here near Phoenix, AZ. And 0.7 Amps is about 0715. Yes, it would be easier if I had a clock that was easy to see, but where is the fun in that? At 3.7 Amps the temperature outside was already low 20s. I brought one litre of water up the hill. Tomorrow I will get up before 2.0 Amps or bring more water. I did not get lost nor take a wrong turn as this was a straight line walk.
After breakfast we hung out in the shade of our tree and the awning. Our new site (which has electricity) was available at 1145 so we threw stuff in the van and we headed over. After claiming the new site we headed to Apache Junction for some ice cream (we have both had an ice cream craving) and take out lupper. We got ice cream at Konos Cones. Supposed to be all hand made but frankly it was crap and we would have been better off at DQ. We tried to figure out if somehow we ended up with Vegan ice cream, cause it was that bad (sorry – not sorry- Vegans).
For lupper we picked up takeout from La Casita of AJ. Mrs Milddogs said the rellenos were very good. And that is all that matters in this story.
Post lupper we hung out. I got out the inflatable “hammock” thing and had a burst of micro naps. We saw some base jumpers parachuting off the top of the mountain. We have seen a number of para-gliders, but this was our first sighting of truly insane people. As sunset approached I set up my iPhone for the sunset timelapse. The colours were better last night, but this is what I got tonight.
After sunset we went out for a walk on some of the trails. Not sure which ones cause I can’t read a trail map. We did make it safely back to the van. That’s a win!
Post walk we heard some coyotes having some fun.
Tomorrow we are on the move, but not too far. Maybe a stop somewhere for better ice cream??
Oh no, we missed the Oscars red carpet crap. I’m wearing dirty clothes by value village.
Gnarly, dude!
