River Walk

 Three years ago I had a blog post about a hike to the lime kiln near the Salt River. This time, BJ and I were headed back in hopes of getting another FTF (First to Find) - this one on a geocache that had published the night before. We left Blue Point as the sun was casting long morning shadows.

This time of the year, the river has minimal flow with the dam at Stewart Mountain only releasing a dribble. Portions of the river have very little water while the pool locations have plenty. We usually see this spot from kayaks!

After a quick stop at the mouth of the wash, we headed up the wash in the shadows. The wash is very sandy but there's usually a narrow trail formed by the feral horses that frequent the area that is a bit firmer.

About six tenths of a mile up the wash from the river is a lime kiln. It seemed like there was less brush around it this time.

Off to one side of the kiln is a hiking register under an obvious pile of rocks. I was amazed to see that it was a glass casserole dish with a plastic cover - poor choice x 2 for this country! This is NOT the geocache that we were seeking.

The geocache was well placed and nicely concealed away from the oven. While looking for the cache we enjoyed the views back down the wash.

BJ and I stamped the log as FTF. Like some of the others I've done this month, this one won't get lots of traffic because it requires more effort, but it's very deserving of the effort. A beautiful hike in beautiful country.

This time, I even remembered to take a picture of us with the log.

As we wandered back to the truck, we enjoyed noticing the details. Gnarled trees, twisted saguaros, and this group of cactus trying to survive in the crack of a rock.

It's been a good month for FTFs - that's four so far. Three of them involved hikes which makes them all the better! I love the 'potluck' aspect of geocaching - never sure where you'll go next nor what you'll find.