CAMPING, HIKING, FISHING, OFF ROADING, TARGET SHOOTS, we find fun when putting a little extra planning into the mix. . . .

Jim and I have always enjoyed hiking & camping together but found it REALLY EXTRA fun when our children found time to do it with us.  Early in our marriage we started a "Hiking Breakfast Club" which included several of our friends and their families (like Dick & Judy Dahl). The purpose was to get everybody in shape to take on over-night camping and hiking activities together.  We hiked Squaw Peak Mt., Camelback Mt., South Mt., White Tanks Mt., Superstition Mt. then went onto camping at the foot of Mt. Baldy in the White Mts. -  which I hiked with the group with Timmy inside me.  (So if he ever wants a correct count of how many times he's hiked Baldy he can surely count that!) Jim, during our eldests children's preteen year's took them on hikes in the Weiminuche Wilderness area in Colorado and then they expanded that to include their Uncle Dave & their cousins, his oldest (they made some great memories about the girls washing their long hair in snow cold streams, eating a lot of wheat pancakes and Top-Ramen).  One time we told all of our, by this time, married kids that we were going to have a "Dutch Oven Cookoff" camping trip & that they were to come prepared with the equipment and foodstuffs needed to do their entries.  We were in for some really healthy competition and delicious grub.  They were all winner's in varous catagories.  Jim and I also did a lot of hiking all over Arizona, Utah, Colorado (Weiminuche Wilderness area and California (Pacific Crest Trail).  One really memoriable hike was several trips to do stretches of The Pacific Crest Trail which stretches from the boarder of Mexico to Canada.  We met some really interesting hikers along the way who were actually hiking the whole trail from Mexico to Canada.  For some it wasn't their first time either.  We also started hiking in a beautiful area above Greer in the Alpine, AZ area called Escudilla. We then took our kids to do it with us with their families.  I wanted to do something different at the foot of the trail before we began our hike together.  So at Momma's cabin (because NO campfires were allowed at the time) I asked each person what they wanted in their "Hobo Dinner's" and cooked up potatoes, hamburger, carrots, onions ect. and with help put in individual foil wrappings and labeled them for the picky eaters and placed in a cooler.  Then took bowls, eating utensils, ect. and a cut up "Texas Sheet Cake". I had them bring their "Nonny Levi Picnic Blankets" to set out in an area not far from our cars so that we could put the heavy blankets back in our cars before our hike.  Then with their hiking water we got out our "Hobo Dinner's" and ate all together before our hike. It was sooooo much fun.  The area was extra beautiful with ferns, wild mushrooms, flowering meadows, aspen groves and beautiful forest along the way to the Escudilla Forest Ranger Lookout Tower.          I am so glad that we did that together and that several of our families (on the Steele side) continued to do it after their first hike with us  - Not long after, this beautiful area was all part of the fire that burnt so much of the White Mountain's. (Pictures of fire as it spread, our "Hoyt's Hide-A-Way" water spring remains, and the view taken from above Greer of area in Greer burned - up to 30 ft. from our back cabin door.)
    

Jim and I kept a log of our hikes together and we also wrote in permanent ink on my hiking boots the names of the different trails we hiked together and the dates we hiked them. Sometimes it was just hiking in the Mts. behind our homes.  The kids named one Mt. "Allen's Peak" &  they all signed a rock to plant up on the top together (above our Rowel home).  We'd have an outdoors-around-the-firepit breakfast and then off they'd go or sometimes they'd just meet with cousins in town and they'd all hike together with their lunches. Here are a few of the pictures we took of these family fun activities and some of our children and families that continue to enjoy such activities together:

                  Many in our family still go on some of our original hike's.  See Robby's family: