Two Gals & a Tripod: Creeks, (White)Claws, and Crawdads

“Some adventures require nothing more than a willing heart and the ability to trip over the cracks in the world.”

― Seanan McGuire, Down Among the Sticks and Bones

In a way, each hike we took feels like an episode of a sitcom or some travel show starring us, and on a few of our hikes, we had guest stars. The first two guests to join us on a hike were Jana’s childhood friend, Syna, and his friend Beth. Both had just finished medical school and were about to begin their residencies in emergency medicine, so they had a few weeks off to relax, play, and adventure.

For this hike, Jana chose a water-related excursion so in preparation we all wore our bathing suits underneath our hiking clothes. As per usual, I packed snacks and Jana packed enough Whiteclaws for the four of us.

We all met at my parent’s house so we could caravan up north—after we hiked Beth had to pick up a bike in Sedona, so the trip was multi-purpose. I drove me and Jana and Beth and Syna drove in Beth’s car. This was the beginning stages of quarantine, so we were extra cautious about being too close in a tight space for long periods of time.

Wet Beaver Creek: Hike #3

We routed to the top of the hike, as opposed to the trailhead, and we knew we were going the wrong way when we began to travel up and up. But we managed to find the right parking lot after a few tight U-turns and a stop by some Port-o-Potties (the restrooms were predictably closed).

We paired off as we began to hike (via Bell Trail)— Beth and me in the lead—Syna and Jana in step behind us. We chatted about our previous outdoor adventures, the states we’d lived in or explored before, and all the places we want to go to still. Beth was from Idaho and had lived in Oregon, while I lived in Colorado for five years, so we had explored different states and terrains. We joked about being each other’s tour guides in our respective states.

The hike on the way up seemed pretty brisk since we were chatting so much. But eventually, we looked behind us and saw that Syna and Jana were a little bit farther behind than we had realized. Jana’s back was tired from carrying all of the Whiteclaws (2 cans for each of us so 8 in total) and we redistributed the weight to give her poor back a break.

I remembered reading about through-hiking and one of the heaviest things a person can carry is water, so I could only imagine how heavy it was to carry a full Camelbak of water on top of the full aluminum cans that were not yet emptied of their liquids.

The redistribution of weight seemed to help significantly and in no time we made it to "the Crack"--a beautiful place with a funny name. There appeared to be a bunch of families and some groups of teenagers in the spot where you could cliff jump, so we settled for a secluded little cove to the right. We stripped down to our bathing suits, cracked open our Whiteclaws, and waded cautiously into the creek.

The rocks were extremely slippery, but we wanted to perch on some rocks in the middle while we drank and ate our snacks, so we slipped and tripped, and laughed our way to comfortable seating positions.

As we were sitting on our rocks and logs, I noticed some little creatures crawling on the stones underneath the surface, "Oh my gosh, look--RIVER LOBSTERS"!

Everyone laughed but sure enough, as they looked closer beneath the surface of the water they too saw what I dubbed "river lobsters" and later found out were just plain old crawdads.

We goofed around and took pictures--even wandering to the spot where teenagers were drinking beer and cliff jumping--though none of us jumped. Once we had our fill of snacks and photos, we got dressed, packed up, and started heading down.

Even Racists Enjoy a Nice Water Hike

One of the most memorable parts of this hike, aside from our shenanigans in our own little cove, was on the way down when we had swapped conversation partners. Jana and Beth were behind me chatting and I was getting to know Syna and trying to keep up with his long legs.

We were in the middle of a conversation, Syna was telling me about how he's half Iranian and was often mistaken as Mexican growing up in Arizona when he suddenly stopped talking. My gaze followed the direction in which he was looking and I saw it too--a shirtless guy with a huge swastika tattoo on his chest was walking towards us on the opposite side of the trail. I was a little speechless, so I just stared in disbelief.

Once he passed by us, we turned to Beth and Jana and asked if they had seen the tattoo. "We glared hard at that guy." Logically, you know that bigots and people with prejudices exist, but you don't expect to see them on your hiking trail right when you're talking about racism your new friend experienced during his childhood. The timing was pretty laughable and a whisper of what would transpire in the next few months with the racial tensions in our country.

Well, Mr. Swastika was about to be a very unhappy man as this hike was probably the most diverse hike I'd been on so far in terms of hikers--we'd already passed people of various races and ethnicities on our way up and coming back down it was just as varied.

The rest of the hike down went by pleasantly enough--swastika man was just a mosquito of an unpleasant moment on an otherwise fun day. Back at the cars, we said our goodbyes to Beth as she headed off to Sedona and the three of us piled in my RAV-4 to head back to Phoenix.

Our first hike with guest stars was a blast, but it was definitely a different dynamic. There's a certain spontaneity when you only have to worry about one other person's needs or schedule. Although, Beth and Syna played along well--enthusiastically even-- with our little rituals including the tripod and Whiteclaws.

I definitely appreciated (and I'm sure Jana did too) their willingness to try a new hike and the laughter and energy they brought with them along the way.

~~~

*3.Wet Beaver Creek: Difficulty: 3.5/5; Scenery: 4/5

Comments After the Hike:

Jana: We went to the Crack at Wet Beaver Creek…the name speaks for itself.

Becca: We found river lobsters! Or crawdads as the rest of the world calls them…

*Busy/Heavily Trafficked