The alarm went off at 6:34am. Ugh. I quickly hit snooze. Jenny stirred but was quiet. The alarm went off again. I grunted. “Do we really need to get out there so early?” BEST QUESTION EVER! No Jenny, no we don’t. We declared that it was our adventure and decided to sleep another hour. The trails would still be there, just maybe a little busier. She really is an amazing travel companion! We had four hikes scheduled for today, roughly 13 miles. We finally got up and readied ourselves with an almond butter/rice cake/banana breakfast, hit up Starbucks next door for some tea and headed off to the Devil’s Bridge.
On our way we decided to call the tour company and discuss our displeasure with the chakra balancing session that lacked any chakra balancing. We called on speaker and the lady on the other end of the line sounded a mess, with paper and noise crinkling in her phone. We asked her to confirm if we had been signed up for the right kind of session yesterday and after giving her my info she asked that we give her a couple minutes to look into it and then call her back when we had a stronger connection. We marveled at how unprofessional the call had been and decided not to call her back yet as to not mess with the energy of our first hike. But she called us back. She had called the guide and he confirmed he knew what our session was and that he had trained us on our chakras blah blah blah. I cut the lady off finally and concisely stated, “That’s nice but simply not true. None of that happened regardless of what he’s saying did, we were there.” In the end the company agreed to refund us half of our fare! Score! We still paid too much for what we got but this was a victory. And that tour guide could answer to his own karma for lying.
The lot was full but the extra sleep was worth it. We found a parking spot along the road, bundled up, like really bundled, the car said it was about 28 degrees out, and started off whimpering about the cold. There were two options at the trailhead; either take the Dry Creek View Trail down to the Devils Bridge Trail or a shorter trek down a rough, rocky, dirt “road” (suitable only for 4-wheel drives but you know if I had my old jeep there I still would have tried it). We’re here to hike not take shortcuts so we set off down the trail, still marveling at the snow on the ground. The hike had a beautiful valley view. We came around a bend and ended up on that dirt road, but just a little way down we caught the Devil’s Bridge Trail.
It’s hard to describe this trail in writing, of course it was beautiful with the red rocks all around us. We passed many people with dogs on the trail and both smiled at the sight of each one, especially as most were decked out in cold weather gear themselves. Zeus would be jealous. We found a little cut in the side of the rock we were hiking against and stopped to goof around taking pictures. Folks walked by and apologized for accidentally stepping in our shot; “No worries, we know how to edit you out!” we assured them. Nothing like strangers telling you they can edit you out of the universe to make you feel warm and fuzzy. Hah.
The trail became steep, requiring the use of our hands to climb and pull ourselves up. And then it became icy, really icy. I sound like a commercial, but I was so thankful for my Salomon hiking shoes and their amazing tread. As people were literally slipping and scarily falling around us, I only truly felt any slip once the entire time. People coming down the trail kept warning us of the slippery ice up ahead. We made sure to return the favor on our way down.
Finally we made it to the Devil’s Bridge – a little arch top that you can walk out on for a pretty amazing picture. The final steps down to the landing area were quite dangerous as slippery ice coated all the gleaming red rock beneath our feet by this point. We decided to set the iPhone camera up on my tripod by wrapping it around a tree to get a picture of us together on the narrow bridge. But it wouldn’t wrap right, a pin has fallen out and a piece is broken. Oops. There were many people around but we didn’t even try to ask someone else to take our picture together. We took turns crawling out onto the narrow bridge and snapping photos.
The hike back down was steep and slippery, we made use of our booties and did some sliding down, warning people going up of the slippery ice they would encounter. And awing at the people dumb enough to try this trek in converse! What the hell people?! We crawled out onto another rock outcropping to chase the sun and take in the view on the way back down. We made it to the road and headed up. We somehow missed the trailhead we had come off of on our way down and took the rough rocky red dirt road the entire way back up. It was cold. The sun was behind the mesa and we resorted to one-word communication, mainly about how cold we were.
From Devil’s Canyon we headed to Fay Canyon, where we stopped and had a picnic in the car, some lentil chips and half a sandwich each. The Fay Canyon trail was pretty but not remarkable. An older couple was ahead of us, smiling, and enjoying each other, we both commented almost simultaneous of that type of relationship being a life goal. We tried to figure out the reason for the lines of rocks that randomly seemed to be set as speedbumps along the trail. Scrubby cactus thingies dotted the landscape looking like they were wearing hula skirts. There was one big rock we both decided to scale, as I hopped up onto the top my hip popped. Woah! That was unexpected but felt so so so good. I had actually been feeling some tension in my hip and it was all released in that moment.
We reached the end of the trail, the dreaded and adored “End of Maintained Trail” sign. There was a steep red rock spiral at the end of the trail, with a layer of snow dusted rocks beneath it. With both of us being part mountain goat we found ourselves heading off the end of the trail and scrambling up the rocks, climbing this spiral. A ways up we stopped for breath and found an amazing view behind us, the gorgeous valley with giant red rock guardians on either side. It was stunning. Jenny took a pano shot and accidentally discovered what cool shots we could get from that point. We stayed there for quite a while, taking pictures, and letting our eyes feast on the scene before us.
We climbed as far up as we could safely go and discussed the energy we both felt flowing through us, were we in an energy vortex? I must do some research and find out because we both felt it. Jenny said it best when we discussed the feeling later, “It was just a happy.” A happy that we both needed as we were uplifted and both starting to feel more settled.
We passed some folks as we climbed down and assured them that the climb was worth it, telling them where to stop for the best view. I also imposed the puppy tax, where I got to pet each dog that we let pass us. Not surprisingly, the golden retriever we encountered was most appreciative of this tax.
From Fay Canyon we went to Doe Mountain trail less than five minutes down the road. At the trailhead we stared at the map trying to orient ourselves as to which trailhead we needed to take, never mind the clearly marked sign just ten feet away from us. Oops.
This was just a short hike from what we’ve seen, maybe a couple miles, so we figured it would be an easy jaunt. Nope. Nope. Nope. This “short” hike was actually a steep switchback up the entire side of the mountain! Along the trail we huffed and puffed as we approached at least a couple points where we had to turn into sleuths and guess which way the trail actually went. A couple younger folks passed us. Show-offs. Then I caught notice of a girl getting rapidly closer behind me on the very narrow, steep, snow-lined trail. We stopped and scrunched against the side so she could pass us. And then this kid started RUNNING up the steep slippery red trail like a graceful gazelle. Damn, to be a teenager again. We both felt old and out of shape!
As we scrambled up the end of the steep hike we realized that, holy shit, we had climbed to the top of the entire mountain! The top of the mesa was flat and beautiful. And windy and cold. We hiked across the mesa to see what was on the other side, another valley. The sun was coming and going, and ice made for a slippery challenge as we explored, trying to find a spot where a picture would capture the magnitude of the edges we were standing on but knowing that no photo would do it justice and we had to simply bask in the moment to create the memory.
As we descended back down the mountain, again occasionally using the official booty scoot maneuver, I still could not stop marveling at the snow. After seeing various messages “written” in the fluffy snow I realized we needed a “Sedona 2018” snow scene! We found a couple good spots on our way down to freeze our fingers off scribbling in the snow. You know everyone on that trail is stopping to photograph those marks, we’ll call that a public service.
After our Doe Canyon trek we sat in the car eating the second half of our sandwiches and looking up the blog with the detailed instructions on how to get to the Birthing Cave. This was a spot off of the Long Canyon trail. And would be our final stop of the day. I asked Jenny to look up what time sunset would be tonight while I drove as it was late in the day and we needed to gauge how much light we had left in the day.
I easily found the trailhead and we bundled up all our layers as sundown wasn’t too far off and this hike was entirely shaded. And so so cold. At no point today had the temperature been above 38*. We had screenshotted detailed instructions to the cave that we had found on a blog. The instructions had some clear instructions on how to cross over a fallen tree to continue on the right trail that were quite useful in keeping us on track. As we hiked on we both started to notice the dead cactus lining the trail. This was the first time we had seen any dead cactus and the state of decay cast a weird aura along the trail. Jenny and I discussed how we both felt a solemn and scary energy spiraling around us.
As we marched forward, the rock formation in which the cave was to lie came into view. We both immediately started laughing at the site of an indention in the cave as we started to figure out why this was called the Birthing Cave. Oh hi girly parts!
We went up the trail looking for the turn-off to get to the cave but couldn’t find it. We backtracked, pulling up the pictures from the directional blog and comparing them to our scenery to pinpoint where we were supposed to be. We had zero reception up there so I’m glad I had screenshotted the directions. Jenny and I found a landmark spot but disagreed on our interpretation of the directions. We tried my interpretation first, because we were at the spot where I thought it meant to veer, and started up a steep hill lined with sharp cactus. We reached an area that would take substantial effort to trudge on through and I surprised myself by quickly setting my ego aside and admitting that I thought I was wrong and we should try her way. We climbed our way back down and started down the other way, our hike quickly turned into a steep climb up loose rock as our confidence grew that we were on the right path now. Though that damn blog didn’t bother to mention how steep this climb would be! Jenny was ahead, from around a switchback I heard, “we made it!” The words echoed and I realized we had reached the cave!
As we looked around, we had absolutely no doubt why this was called the Birthing Cave, this was quite an anatomically correct rock! The view was gorgeous and we felt sheltered, taking our time to see if we could safely climb higher. In the end we both decided not to reach the next ledge, it was late in the day and if something went wrong it would be bad. The energy was still solemn but felt a little more contained and slightly less frenetic. But still had a creepy aura.
We finally pulled ourselves out of the cavernous feminine niche and began our return hike. It was later than we had planned on leaving and we knew daylight was going to rapidly decline. We discussed that we should have carried flashlights. I estimated we had about 20-25 minutes of light remaining. We both felt that scary solemn energy. I don’t know what it was but it was no good. As I write these words I have tears in my eyes for zero good reason, like none, I have no idea why my eyes are watering and tears are streaming down my face. So crazy. But that was the energy there.
As we rushed down the trail we both stopped quick in our tracks at a spot of snow. It had writing etched into it. We both are very attentive to our surroundings and neither of us had noticed this landmark before. We stared and then I saw it and read it out loud, “I’m a ghost.” WTF?!?! This was NOT here before and we had not seen nor heard sign of a single other person on this trail our entire time. We both stiffened as our hearts raced and we rushed forward. Both of us felt a chill sink into us, from the inside out. There were weird random snow footprints, singular prints, appearing on the earth beneath us as we trudged on. These prints made no sense. Then I saw the weirdest print of all, it looked like a footprint with a paw print at the toe. We stared, neither of us having remembered seeing in on our way out. We snapped a picture. As we looked at the picture later this evening we noticed even more oddities in the footprints in it. Nothing aligns, the steps don’t make sense. I am literally getting cold as I write this and feel a heaviness and frenetic energy over me. This was not a good place. I was so glad I had kept the car keys in an easier to access pocket than normal and we both jumped in the car and locked the doors with a quickness as we got to it just as dark set in. Our total hiking miles for the day: 13.47.
We had no reception out here but I had downloaded offline maps of the area and we had been using them all day. I typed in our hotel and received a “route can’t be found” error. No maps were working to get us back. Thankfully I had a vague sense of where we should be going and set us off in the right direction. I am tempted to return to the Birthing Cave and the Long Canyon Trail just to see if the energy still feels so dark.
We made it back to the hotel, stopping at Safeway for a bottle of champagne for tonight and sandwiches for lunch tomorrow, and changed for dinner at the Mariposa Latin Inspired Grill. It had been recommended to us at least twice, maybe three times. We “dressed up” in jeans and sweaters and headed out for what was to be a delicious meal. I got even more excited when we walked in and I saw a cookbook I have on my own counter at home, signed by the author herself. This was a Lisa Dahl restaurant! We took seats at the bar and decided on a few plates to share including kale salad, beef empanadas, grilled shrimp, and chicken tortilla soup. I won’t bore with details but the salad was exquisite and excited us for the future courses, which were all extreme letdowns. We even had the tortilla soup removed from our bill as neither of us could eat the odd, sweet, unappetizing yuckiness in a bowl.
After dinner our plan had been to come back to the hotel and soak in the hot tub with some champagne. But the logistics of getting from our room to the hot tubs across the property in 30* weather presented some challenges for chicks who hate freezing. We instead decided to just take showers, warm up, and drink the champagne in the coziness of our room. We changed up our plans for tomorrow and have about ten miles of hiking still on the agenda but different trails than we had planned. Plus our chakra sound healing in the evening! And boy am I glad we already decided to set the alarm for a tolerable 8am!
But see how easily we can erase people from pictures?!
Taking On the World 
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