I arrived in Tucson completely tired of the Montana winter. The weather report called for sandstorms down in southern Arizona, and sure enough there was a brown haze over Tucson as we made a choppy landing. I saw Vince Pinto, my guide, frantically looking for me just outside the baggage area, and we warmly said hello. I was getting reading for another primitive outdoor camping trip with minimal gear. I had not gone on one of these trips for several years, but I had been practicing certain skills up in Montana with my friend Melvin who had been doing these skills his whole adult life. These trips always rejuvenate me, and I was desperately in need of one.
Despite being windy, the weather was warm and sunny in Tucson as we headed to Vince's car. I loved the warmth and sunshine I had been missing for the last several months. A broken collarbone and two minor fender-benders had really soured my taste for the current winter season.
Vince and I hit it off right away, and I instantly knew I had made the right choice to spend a week with him at his property south of Tucson and also in the Chiricahua Mountians in the extreme southeast corner of Arizona. We drove south towards the town of Patagonia to his property which is called Raven's Nest. Vince and his wife Claudia (who was born in Columbia) run the Ravens Way school for wilderness skills and Nature Education. Vince started this business back in 1993 and is one of the best Naturalists/outdoor skills people I have ever met. His ethic for the land and living sustainably is something I have only seen in a few individuals.
We reached Raven's Nest and I was dazzled with the property. The desert landscape was a virtual wildlife sanctuary with scrubby trees (e.g. Mesquite, Juniper, Netleaf Hackberry...), cacti, grasses, and tons of wildlife. Aside from the many bird species on the property, there are also coyotes wildcat, javalina, etc. Vince and Claudia's house sits up on a hill at the top of the property with expansive views of several mountain ranges, and some interesting plants right around their place. At the bottom of the property is a nice bottomland habitat complete with a large former horse barn converted to their school, camping sites, an outdoor primitive skills village, shade structures called Ramadas, and other nice surprises. A system of trails and an arroyo make getting around the place fairly easy, although one has to be aware of things that can prick, bite or otherwise hurt a person.
I spent the rest of the first day exploring the property and taking in the virtual museum of natural information within his school. I slept under the stars that night with blankets and a sleeping pad and was woken up several times by coyotes, two low flying planes following one another (??), and finally by the cold ground. I spent the last two hours of darkness shivering back in the unheated school, reading some books. The next day was spent packing for the primitive trip, exploring the property further (with Vince’s guidance), reading books, and doing a few skills. I made a jute, webbed bag for my water bottle, which was a lot of fun. Claudia made me dinner the first two nights, including gourmet burritos and a delicious chicken dish. We also sorted out our food that we had purchased at Trader Joes for the trip ahead. We were taking a balanced diet with simple foods like nuts, trail mix, meusli, dried fruit, beef jerky and dulse (a type of seaweed). We
agree to wake up the next morning early, drive to the Chiricahua Mountains, and hit the trail early.
The next morning, we headed out talking and planning a bit for the trip. We would each have all the clothing we wanted to bring, a blanket, our food, a water container, and primitive tools. I also brought a water filter so as not to get sick. We arrive at a trailhead on the western side of the Chiricahuas and took off. At the trailhead, Vince read a nice spiritual passage and pointed out that the area is amazing for wildlife, birds and butterflies. He also pointed out that four ecological zones meet right at the Chiricahuas, making them one of the most diverse mountain ranges in North America.
We started up the trail with about 20 pounds on our backs. I deliberately did not bring a camera along, although I took pictures before and after the camping outing for posterity. My pack was made from my blanket Vince had loaned me, some rope and all the stuff packed inside. It was definitely not very comfortable, but we kept adjusting my pack until it was. Vince was wearing some buckskins, and his packs and pouches were either buckskin or cloth. He also had a coon skin cap, and made a striking image as if an early Spanish explorer to the area. Our plan was to be out five days and four nights total. The hike started out steep, and Vince tore off an Agave stalk for future use.
The mountains were very forested and looked a lot like the rest of the Rocky Mountains except that the trees included large oaks, manzanitas, and other more southern species. Also, in the middle of the forest, you would suddenly see a spiky desert plant among the pines, firs and junipers such as agave, sotol, and yucca. This strange sight was very weird and wonderful. Also, one would come up to open meadows that looked a bit like grasslands you might see in Africa. In fact, many of the valley areas that we drove through to get to this mountain range looked like picture of Africa with endless yellow grasses, and scrubby trees. This is not far off, as the climates are similar between southern Arizona and the African Serengeti. Like Africa, Arizona has a dry season and monsoon season. This particular year was fairly dry, so we had to be careful with fire.
The weather was perfect, in the 80s, and as we walked on to our eventual campsite, we went through several habitats as our elevation increased. At one point, we came to some pools encased by beautiful rocks in what would be a cascading waterfall during monsoon season. We unsuccessfully hunted some lizards to eat (we didn't try that hard) and also picked some wild onions for later. It is hard to be motivated to hunt small critters for food, when you bring lots of good food along!
We continued on over a pass, expecting to be the only ones up there in that area of the mountains. In fact, Vince was happy of the fact that we would be alone out there away from everyone in an isolated valley. As we went over the last pass, we heard one voice and then many human voices. As Murphy's Law would have it, there was a huge trail crew camped right in the spot Vince had planned for us to camp. Vince was kind of upset, but I told him it was okay. So, we carried on mostly unnoticed past the trail crew and up a side stream. We hiked another half a mile, and cut up off the side trail up the valley side until we found an area we could use as a campsite. We were mostly out of range of the trail crew or any of their noise, and we were off the valley floor, which would allow us to be warmer at night. Right where we left the side trail, there were pools of water in rock that could sustain our supply for weeks.
The spot Vince picked was fairly flat, with a lot of oaks for shelter and holding in the heat from a campfire. It was getting dark, so I filtered water while Vince cleared out an area for us. He cleared the vegetation off the soil in the area we would sleep and then we both gathered rocks for a fire pit. We both collected as much wood as we could for the fire (there were tons of dead oak branches around as a result of no recent fires, so we were set for wood), and Vince mentioned that breaking off dead branches would be like a small and beneficial fire coming through the area. He really knows what he is doing and is very comfortable in the outdoors. However, it was getting dark and Vince's first attempts at a hand drill fire did not work very well. We had a few emergency matches, but wanted to get the fire going by handdrill. Finally, Vince grabbed the set he had given me and started a fire as I heaped small branches and grass on the coal to get the fire going. Once we had a fire going, it got completely dark. The nights were getting down to 25 degrees on Vince's previous scouting trip, but our nights were much warmer at around 35 or even 40 degrees. Nevertheless, fire was going to be essential to keeping us warm without a sleeping bag.
A thin moon was still up for a few more hours, and I was having the same uneasy feeling that I always have at the beginning of these trips. The feeling is generally that I would rather be elsewhere in comfort or at home curled up with a book. I kept asking myself why I do these hard things on my vacation--why not go to California on the beach or just stay at home and be a slug? I guess the main answer is that I slow my mind down and obtain internal strength from these trips, and over all I let go. I get out of my usual thinking patterns out in the woods because I have no distractions out here and no place to escape to. The only choice is to deal with myself and everything that I am.
We stayed up a bit the first night and then both went to bed with grass and fir bough bedding to keep the cold of the ground away from our bodies. I curled up in a blanket and feel asleep with all the clothes on that I had (two winter hats, thermal underwear, five layers on top,etc). Vince stayed up keeping the fire going, and then I woke up to take over as he slept. After a while I fell asleep, and Vince and I traded off keeping the fire going. Before you know it, it was morning and we had survived the first night. We continually ate some food and practiced a few skills. The agave stalk Vince cut off became a potential container for storing whatever, and the bees that had partially hollowed out the stalk had long since left.
We built up the fire hearth from nearby rocks so as to help channel the warmth more to our bodies the next night. The rocks served to lower fire danger, retain heat and thermal mass, and channel the heat to the two spots we were sleeping. Before we took off to hike for the day, we gathered some Mountain Yucca caudex to use as a coal extended and put those on the coals of the morning fire. Then we put some rocks on top of the coal extender to keep the coals going throughout the day without the risk of fire danger.
As it turned out, the trail crew came right up our side canyon and continued on for trail work. So much for isolation! Vince and I followed their tracks, and looked for a way up a steep mountain across the valley from us. We scouted out a potential trail to hike for the following day, and then headed back down to the original camp of the trail crew.
After walking quietly through their empty camp, we went downstream and found a place with water pools where we could bathe in the cold water and rest up. Not having soap or toilet paper, I needed some cleaning! Vince also mentioned that cleaning ourselves would fluff up the microhairs on our skin and allow us to be warmer at night while sleeping, not to mention the psychological benefits of being clean. We found some pools of water and each took one for ourselves. I bathed in a cold pool and laundered a few pieces of nasty clothing. I then dried out naked in the hot sun and found some ‘toilet paper plant’ (mullen). I considered burning my underwear. After bathing, I drew some artistic lines on a tree fungus with an agave quill that Vince had given me. The art looked kind of African or aboriginal. I had a blast, and some of the uneasy feeling being out in the woods went away.
Out in the desert and even up in these desert ranges there are lots of things that can get a person if they are not careful. Dangers in Arizona include rattle snakes, scorpions, and lots of prickly plants (including Palmer Agave that can mess up one's joints) with a single puncture, heat, dehydration, venomous spiders, bears, etc. I did not feel at danger, but we had to be aware. As Vince said, the most dangerous part of our trip was driving in the car to get to these places.
I was honest the whole time with Vince about how I resist these trips--especially in the first 48 hours out in the bush. He was extremely supportive. After the bath and artwork, I felt better but still wished to be elsewhere. Thankfully, Vince was great company and had a great attitude that kept lifting me up. We went back to camp and ate some food and then dark came quickly. The night was fine and we woke the next morning to climb the mountain across the valley. Instead of taking a roundabout trail up towards the peak, we bushwhacked straight up the side of the mountain through dense brush after soaking our hats. Getting to the top was challenging as we met manzaneta thickets, cacti, and slippery rocks. After much trail and error we got to the summit ridge and sat upon a nice rock. The actual summit was too hard to get to with all the vegetation in the way. As we sat on the ridge rock, I pulled out some rock I was working on for tools and Vince taught me how to pressure flake the rock to make a rock saw and an arrowhead. I used Vince’s deer antler as the pressure flaking tool. On the ridge, we could see the crest of the Chiricahuas and the National Monument to the north and a rock formation called Cochise Head. It was nice up there, but our water supply was limited so we headed down after a bit. We came down mostly the way we came up with a Rock Rattlesnake as the only exciting moment. We gave him a large berth and got back down.
At camp, we practiced more skills including handdrill on sotol, more flint knapping, making a container out of the agave stalk, and setting up a deadfall trap to kill a mouse or bird for food. I was having fun and was finally feeling at ease. The 48 hour mark into our trip had come and I was feeling good. We had decided to cut the camping trip short a day to see more of the Chiricahua Mountains. So, we slept that night at our camp eating some of our onions and listening to a distant owl, and mostly got a full night's sleep due to the warmer weather. We also shared some personal challenges with society and with growing up in it. It was nice to be out there with a kindred soul. We also did a bit of astronomy pointing out some compass directions by certain stars. The stars and Milky Way are amazing out there.
The next day we woke up, broke camp, tried to erase all signs of camp, and headed back out on the trail. We met a few of the trail crew who were Americorps members by our camp. We continued out hiking taking some rests. Now that I was much calmer and relaxed, I was really seeing the different ecosystems as we went down in elevation hiking back towards the car. The perfect weather was holding-about 80 degrees-and the trail was winding through great stuff. We would be in forest and then in a small grassland park with trees at the edge. Around one corner, Vince stopped suddenly and whispered, “Bobcat”. The cat quickly took off and I never saw it but heard it. We continue down to the car, tired and thirsty and took a while to rest.
Driving out, we had decided to go north in the range to the Chiricahua National Monument. Vince called his wife and we heard for the first time of the horror happening in Japan. I couldn’t believe it. We kept driving and hit the national monument which was amazing. A paved road took us past a visitors center up to an amazing lookout with 360 degree views. I was stunned. We hiked a bit from the lookout area among rock hoodoos that looked like stuff you would see in Utah. We got to one area called The Grotto with some cool passages and other rock formations. The rock was slightly pale pink colored and was called rhyolite—the remains of an ancient eruption. I looked out from my high perch to the valley west of the mountains and tried to imagine all the huge animals that used to be in southern Arizona before humans arrived—animals such as the huge sloth, a camel, an indigenous horse, and apparently cheetahs, and mammoths! Arizona really did used to be a Serengeti! We took a short nap in the rock formations and I felt the timelessness of the wind blowing over me and looking up at clouds passing over the sun.
After hiking a bit in the rock formations, we left the mountains and went north to I-10 in order to get to the east side of the Chiricahuas and to Vince’s other piece of property. We passed several gas stations that were mysteriously out of gas, and finally found a place that sold it. We also had a Quizno’s sandwich which was great after several days of cold meals. We arrived at his other property at nightfall. His property is in the vicinity of the tiny town of Portal and is undeveloped except for some primitive shelters including a stone pit house, a structure of rock walls, a wickiup, and some other wooden shelters.
I bundled up in my blanket in one of those structures with a nice fire and stone walls as a heat reflector and mostly had a warm and complete sleep. Rather than hear a lot of wildlife at night it was mostly quiet. The night sky was unreal again and a layer of clouds kept us relatively warm. The next morning, we explored his property by climbing a steep hill up to some cliffs and looking out over the valley to the east of the Chiricahuas and across the valley at the next mountain range. Basically, we were looking into New Mexico since we were very close to the state line. To our right was a distant mountain range that was located in Mexico. We hiked around looking at the structures and great plants in Vince’s property. This was more of a desert-like ecosystem with agave stalks that reached 20 feet high and huge Prickly Pear Cacti. Some of it looked like another planet to me.
We hopped in the car and visited the nearby sleepy town of Portal tucked into the mountains, and then we drove a few miles up Cave Creek Canyon which looked like Yosemite and Zion National Parks with its huge cliff walls. The road between the cliffs was beautiful and we ended up at a biological research station that mostly gets traffic from bird watchers and biologists. It was beautiful and funny to see so much civilization tucked back in the mountains.
After taking in the beauty of the site, we drove out of there for several hours south to the town of Bisbee, Arizona. On the drive, I fell asleep, and woke up for a bit in the town of Rodeo to take some pictures of desolate playground equipment (in the middle of nowhere). Bisbee is a mining town with a funky art community and a few funny tourist traps. We spent the better part of the afternoon there, buying a couple of books and looking at the art. We kept talking the whole time joking and building up more rapport. Again, I knew that our friendship would be a long-term one.
Driving again towards Patagonia and Ravens nest, we kept talking and he surprised me by sharing the music he grew up on. Being a music junkie myself, I was interested. He ended up playing early Bruce Springsteen and pointing out how it affected him. We played that until we got back to his home and school. I showered up at their house, ate some more gourmet burritos that Claudia made at the house, and watched the continuing horror on TV from Japan of nuclear catastrophe, etc. We shook our heads at the world and the bad luck those Japanese were going through. Vince had on a Japanese robe after he showered in honor of the tragedy. I thought he looked funny. I went back down to the school, read a book, and slept with lots of blankets to keep warm.
The next morning I packed up, and Vince and I headed for the airport in Tucson. On the way, we had a Japanese meal (best ever) and stopped at a great bookstore. I picked up some nonfiction works, a book called Call of the Kalahari, and for an indulgence, a Rolling Stone magazine. I had not brought any books along in order to get out of my head, but wanted some reading for the return trip. Vince dropped me off, we said goodbye and had someone actually take a picture of the two of us at the airport. Then, I made it home with little interruption.
Here in Montana, I sit here with a box of new primitive skills projects to work on and I look forward to it.
