A Lesson in Preparation – Rescue on the Toadstool Trail

Trailhead to Toadstool Trail - Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

Trailhead to Toadstool Trail © 2014 Bo Mackison

Afternoon on Day Two of my unexpected travel adventure.
Rangers at Big Water recommend the Toadstool Trail on my drive to Kanab,
a mile and a half trek through balanced rocks and hoodoos.

“Go past the first toadstool,” one ranger suggests.
“The toadstool garden is quite the thing to see.”
It’s only a few miles down the road. Three pm. Great timing.

Info on Toodstool Trail

All the Details © 2014 Bo Mackison

A line from Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument brochure catches my fancy:
“offers…extraordinary insight into what sustains, maintains, and explains our world.”

Sustains. Maintains. Explains.

Trailhead. I check my pack. Standard Sonoran Desert gear works in the high desert, too.
Sign in at the registration stand.
I’m a dozen yards down the level trail when I reconsider,
and go back for my walking stick and extra water.

Toadstool Trail - Grand Staircase escalante National Monument

“No service” on my cell phone.
I can’t phone in my hiking plans to my trail buddy, but I’m on a popular trail. No worries.

The trail follows a sandy wash for the first half mile,
then weaves around sculptured slick rock, flowers bloom in abundance.
Formations of striped red and white make a stunning backdrop.

Toadstool Trail - Grand Staircase escalante National Monument

The First Toadstool © 2014 Bo Mackison

Hikers pass me on their return, marveling at the hoodoos and balanced rocks.
“The toadstools,” they thrill. “They really look like toadstools.”

I reach the first toadstool, a beauty standing in its solitude.
A couple reports the toadstool garden is just beyond the white escarpment,
exactly how the ranger described it.

How’s the trail? I ask.
A little scrambly up a few rocks; the garden’s worth the climb.
I’m good to go, glad I brought my hiking stick.

Toadstool Trail - Grand Staircase escalante National Monument

Cairns mark the trail, winds through narrow channels, crosses benches of rock.
The garden is a sight to behold, hard to photograph due to the shadows, but the scenery to the west is striking.
After hiking the trail a couple of hours, appreciative of the solitude and sights, it’s time to get back on the road.

Toadstool Trail - Grand Staircase escalante National Monument

Formations in Rock © 2014 Bo Mackison

It is solitude that gives us the opportunity to recover a sense of internal order, to develop new self-confidence for the day to come, and to experience the spiritual strength it takes for a person, if necessary, to face tomorrow alone.
~ Joan Chittister

Following the trail, I haven’t seen other hikers since the gardens,
and high in the chalky rock, hiking on the slick rock,
I realize I’ve passed these rock formations before, I’m walking in a circle.

Retracing my steps, I start again at the last cairn.
Again I end up traveling in a wide circle, half hidden in rocky crevices,
slip sliding. The trail disappears a third time.
For the first time on a solo hike, I am lost in a tangle of rock hoodoos.

Toadstool Trail - Grand Staircase escalante National MonumentLife is not meant to be a series of resolutions designed to make us something we’re not. It’s meant to be a series of explorations which, in the end, finally bring us home to ourselves. ~ Joan Chittister

I have time, late afternoon. Again I carefully trace the trail.
I am missing a turn or a step, a switch back. Still, it eludes me.
I am frightened, but at the same time, I am calm.

Deep breaths and I check my pack. Enough water and food, but I don’t have a light.
My mind gets busy searching for options. I pull out my whistle.

Toadstool Trail - Grand Staircase escalante National MonumentHaving the opportunity to be alone is an important dimension of learning to function alone. Having had the time to define our personal positions in life we can then go on with the confidence and certainty it takes to know what we think — and then claim it. ~ Joan Chittister

A plan? Sleep under a ledge for some protection and warmth?
Lean against rocks and stay awake?
It’s only one night, there will be hikers tomorrow.

I’ve never spent the night unprepared in the wilderness,
is this the night?

Toadstool Trail - Grand Staircase escalante National Monument

On the Trail © 2014 Bo Mackison

And then, across a small canyon, two hikers climb along on a bench, high above me.
I whistle three sharp blows. They look up.
Are you on the trail, I ask. They nod.

They have a height advantage, they consider the rocks, the paths.
They point, guide me through narrow ways, around boulders, over a shallow crevice
I can jump using my stick for balance.

Toadstool Trail - Grand Staircase escalante National Monument

This is life’s greatest moment, when the soul unfolds capacities which reach beyond earth’s boundaries. ~ Isaac Hecker

And then I scramble up a rocky wall and I am on the trail.
We walk towards the road. At the first toadstool, they ask me
to take their photo – they are father and son. Their annual visit.

Toadstool Trail - Grand Staircase escalante National Monument

Sego Lilies © 2014 Bo Mackison

It is easy to bounce through life — going here, trying that, tasting this. What is difficult is trying to figure out what we are supposed to do with what we find, or learn from where we go what will make life even richer. For ourselves, of course. But for the rest of the world, as well. ~ Joan Chittister

The trail is in the wash, they go ahead.
I think to myself, I was lost, and now I’m found.

Sustains. Maintains. Explains.

Toadstool Trail - Grand Staircase escalante National Monument

Getting stuck in life — refusing to experiment; being afraid to try something new; becoming cemented in what is, rather than excited by what could be — is the difference between living and being alive. ~ Joan Chittister

Toadstool Trail - Grand Staircase escalante National Monument

The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.
~ Henry Miller

Toadstool Trail - Grand Staircase escalante National Monument

When we know who we are, when we have confronted the spirits within ourselves against which we vie for dominance, we find ourselves more inclined to be so much kinder to everyone else. ~ Joan Chittister

~~~~~

Most of the quotations are from The Art of Life, Monastic Wisdom for Every Day by Joan Chittister

Essence of Place – Little Horse Trail in Sedona

Sedona

Sedona © 2014 Bo Mackison

For the second year in a row, I embarked on a thousand-mile circle trip of Arizona — it helps fine tune my driving stamina in anticipation of the cross-country drive to the Midwest in another month.

This year I had the good fortune to have a companion on the excursion. My younger daughter, visiting from Wisconsin, is an avid fan of National Parks and enthusiastically agreed to accompany me on a trip through the heart of Arizona while stopping at one National Park plus four National Monuments.

Our first stop was Sedona, not a National Park, but the surrounding red rock area certainly has the flavor of one and qualifies as a National Landscape Treasure if not an official park. These rock formations, the Madonna and Two Nuns, overlook the Chapel of the Holy Cross, pictured below.

Biking on Little Horse Trail

Biking on Little Horse Trail © 2014 Bo Mackison

Exploring the trails was our chief source of pleasure. We hiked the Little Horse, a wide trail once an old jeep trail. We crossed dry creek beds, though there was evidence of the recent rainfall – thick red mud and a variety of prints, some human, some not. The trail is a favorite not only of hikers, but cyclists also take to these hills.

Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Sedona

Chapel of the Holy Cross © 2014 Amanda Fahrenbach

Once we had walked a half mile, the Chapel of the Holy Cross comes into view, a modern structure that appears to be clinging to the red rock through spiritual intervention.

Yucca

Yucca © 2014 Bo Mackison

Yucca are a common plant along the trail, reminding us that we are not far from the desert.

Indian Paintbrush on Little Horse Trail

Indian Paintbrush on Little Horse Trail © 2014 Bo Mackison

Scarlet Indian Paintbrush is a favorite flower, adding bright color, though we only spotted it in a few places. Usually we saw just one or two stalks of the bright orange stalks, so we stopped to take photos when we found a large stand of the wildflower in the brush of a downed tree.

The flowers of Indian paintbrush are edible, and were often mixed with fresh greens by southwestern Native American tribes. It was also used as a hair conditioner, a treatment for rheumatism, and an overall health tonic – an all-purpose plant!

IMG_2245

Crossroads – Little Horse Trail and Llama Trail © 2014 Bo Mackison

A criss-cross of trails makes it doubly important to note the trail signs. Though Little Horse Trail is an easy hike, it leads into the wilderness area beyond Chicken Point. It’s always a good idea to have a map and plenty of water when hiking any of the red rock trails.

Little Horse Trail Sedona

Little Horse Trail, Sedona © 2014 Bo Mackison

Lots of red rock. Lots of blue skies with fast-moving clouds. Lots of Arizona cypress. And views of many of the more recognizable rock monuments. A great place to get in touch with the natural beauty of Sedona.

West Bluff – An Autumn Journey

West Bluff, Devils Lake State Park

West Bluff, Devils Lake State Park © 2013 Bo Mackison

“Walking shares with making and working that crucial element of engagement of the body and the mind with the world, of knowing the world through the body and the body through the world.” ~ Rebecca Solnit

There is something about hiking in a natural setting that is grounding and restorative.

The pounding of city pavement is an altogether different experience than walking upon earthen paths, climbing rocks dispersed in the last glacial age*, scrambling along boulders that eventually dammed glacial flow and created the lake I hiked along. (Devils Lake, the central feature of Devils Lake State Park in south central Wisconsin.)

In an age where many of us take our cars to get just about anywhere, and the average American walks 1.6 miles a week, mostly in malls, grocery stores and walking back and forth from parking lots to buildings. it is easy to forget that a day spent in nature is not only rejuvenating, it is a basic human need.

I am, by choice, a slow walker.

I do not get pleasure from counting steps and computing miles. But I do know I need to walk every day in the natural world, even if I am only walking through a nearby nature conservancy,  along a path in a prairie restoration, even in the neighborhood park, a place filled with the recreational amenities of a neighborhood — playground, ball field, basketball hoops — but also open spaces and fields of grasses.

I take my time on these walks.

This is not aerobic exercise, but an exercise for my senses. I see a forest in shades of yellow, gold, orange, red, purple and every color of green and brown imaginable. The wind picks up and blows cool against my face. The sun passes in and out of colors, forcing me to perform an awkward dance of sorts while walking the paths — coat on, coat off, coat on again.

I pick up leaves of oaks and maples, the textures soft and pliable, their colors brilliant and mottled with specks of decay. I kick the piles of leaves at my feet and I gaze at the faraway countryside from the top of the bluffs, land quilted in peak autumn colors – a few farm fields, patches of hardwood forests, prairies, and rolling hills.

A smorgasbord for the senses.

*Wisconsin Glacier – 110,000 to 12,000 years ago. Not only did its receding create the lake that I hiked around, it also created such notable features as the Great Lakes, Long Island, Cape Cod, and Niagara Falls.

Autumn Hike in Wisconsin

Autumn Walk XI

Let’s Take an Autumn Walk ©2012 Bo Mackison

A Colorful Autumn Hike in Wisconsin

One of the urban parks in Madison, Wisconsin – Owen Conservation Park – has a maze of hiking trails. There are dozens of paths, views of the city, prairie remnants, trails through hardwood forests, and a small pond for water fowl. The park seems specially designed for a colorful hike in autumn.

Autumn Walk VII

View Across the Prairie ©2012 Bo Mackison

Prairie view. Most of the golden-rods and asters – the last blooms in autumn – have now gone to seed. The prairie is filled with fluffs of white blowing seeds.

Autumn Walk III

Autumn Colors in the Woods ©2012 Bo Mackison

The forests, though small, have a fine variety of hardwoods. Maples, oaks, hickory are the predominant species, and together produce a fine color mix of yellows, oranges, reds and browns.

Autumn Walk XII

Leafy Shadows in Autumn ©2012 Bo Mackison

I love to hike when the sun is still low enough in the morning to cast leafy shadows on the tree trunks in the more open spaces.

Autumn Walk VI

Reds and Yellows in Autumn ©2012 Bo Mackison

Sumacs give the park’s open spaces a deep red glow. More whites in the prairie — fluffy seeds. Yellow ashes still have some of their leaves.

Autumn Walk V

Autumn Walk in the Forest ©2012 Bo Mackison

Another path through the woods and I’m back to the parking area.

Autumn Walk I

Owen Park Road ©2012 Bo Mackison

Even while leaving the park, there are so many trees in bright colors. I pulled along the side of the road a half-dozen times for that “one last shot.”

————-

Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Thankful for the opportunity for a nature walk today.

She is attending the Filter Festival in Chicago the week of October 15. Workshops, lecture series, gallery walks, portfolio reviews, and much more. But no opportunities for walks in the autumn woods.

Hiking Sabino Canyon

Yipes Stripes

Yipes Stripes © 2012 Bo Mackison

On a sunny, 80˚ day in March, Sherpa and I agreed it was a great day for a hike, especially a hike that had a bit of a cheat to it. We hiked the Phoneline Trail in Sabino Canyon, a gorgeous canyon in the Santa Catalina Mountains bordering Tucson. Our cheat was this — we paid a few bucks each for a ride on the shuttle which comfortably took us from the Sabino Canyon Visitor Center to the top of the line, stop #9. We figured once we were up on the mountain, it would be an easy hike down.

I love this photo of Sherpa with the many variations of stripes. Stripe shadows, stripes from the ramada on Sherpa’s shirt, and he’s even wearing a shirt with horizontal stripes. “Yipes, stripes” is right. I was seeing stripes for most of the shuttle ride.

End of the Shuttle Run

End of the Shuttle Run © 2012 Bo Mackison

As the tram takes you deeper and deeper into the canyon, the world of natural beauty feels immense. Towering mountains, rocky ledges, saguaro reaching up. This is another sky island, once of several dozen in southern Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico. Desert at the lowest levels, a juniper, pine, and rocky habitat at the top.

The Hike Begins

The Hike Begins © 2012 Bo Mackison

This trail starts at the end of the paved road. A half mile climb of ever-upward-reaching switchbacks takes us to the main Phoneline Trail. Once there, the trail follows the road, only several hundred feet higher. It isn’t a hard hike, but there are gentle ups and downs throughout the “descent” and several hundred boulders to help you climb up or climb down.

The Peak

The Peak © 2012 Bo Mackison

Once we climbed high enough, we could look to the north and see Mount Lemmon, the highest mountain peak in the Tucson area. If we had been really ambitious — and 30 years younger — perhaps we would have climbed up and over. But since neither the ambition or the age was happening, we took a lot of long looks from the trail we were on.

Eye Level with a 40 Foot Tall Saguaro

Eye Level with a 40 Foot Tall Saguaro © 2012 Bo Mackison

There is one tricky thing about hiking on a desert oasis on a mountain trail. The saguaro are conveniently within grabbing distance if one was to lose their balance. I started to reach out for a steadying cactus arm more than once before I realized what I was doing and quickly pulled away. This saguaro was a forty footer, but at my eye level on the trail I could see the upper third in great detail. Wow! Imagine what it will look like in another month, full of white cactus blooms.

Switchbacks on the Sabino Canyon Trail

Switchbacks on the Sabino Canyon Trail © 2012 Bo Mackison

We looked back and laughed when we saw the trail we had just hiked, snaking up and down, switch-backing a mere 200 feet in elevation in a half mile.

It Seems the Trail Always Climbs Uphill

It Seems the Trail Always Climbs Uphill © 2012 Bo Mackison

Rocks, rocks, and more rocks. Careful here to not trip and stumble, as the fall would be a long one. Since this area had a foot of snow earlier this week, the trail was bordered by lots of green — bushes, trees leafing out, wildflowers everywhere.

Wildflowers Along the Trail

Wildflowers Along the Trail © 2012 Bo Mackison

We both had had our exercise for the day when we reached the picnic area near the Visitor Center. And let me say — my peanut butter and strawberry jam on thick whole wheat never tasted better. And that cold bottle of water — perfect!

———–

Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC, is living in southern Arizona,  photographing and hiking the sky islands and giving thanks that she can see such sights.