The Torrent

Note: For those of you who read the Hoeneses' blog, this is the same story with the same pictures, so proceed only if you want a repeat :)

We went with our friends on a hike yesterday. They intelligently left both their children in the care of others since it was almost 8 miles round trip, including crossing water a number of times. We left Adie with a babysitter because she is too heavy to put in a hiking backpack, but too slow to be fun to hike with. We took Chase with us, however, because he's not a big fan of bottles (thus not fun to leave with people for a very long time), and we thought it would be easier to pack him and feed him as needed. This was not a good choice, as will be illustrated in the following story and pictures.

First, I must confess that we knew the weather forecast called for a 90% chance of rain at our destination of Sabino Canyon. However, knowing that we live in the very arid desert and it's not monsoon season, we figured the rain would be short and sweet or a mild drizzle at most. We dressed warmly, even brought a rain jacket and set out. Ok, it was suggested by pretty much everyone else that we could / maybe should do something else, considering we had a 6-month-old with us, but I thought we could weather whatever the elements had to throw at us. Oh how wrong I was, and how horrible of a mother I felt like just a short time later.

The rain did start falling about mile into our hike, but it was a drizzle and it was still fun to hike. It was really fun to actually see a naturally-occurring body of water in the Tucson area. They are few and far between. We kept going onward and upward, and even crossed the river once. As we were crossing, the rain really picked up and we decided shortly thereafter that maybe we shouldn't go any further so we turned back around. I don't know how far up we had gone because the hike felt short on the way up. The way back seemed like an eternity though. We were soaked to the bone. The wind kicked up and, at one point, it even started hailing. All the while, we had exhausted every last blanket, jacket and towel trying to keep poor little Chase as warm and dry as we could. Our efforts were in vain. It was a literal torrent. Chase was screaming bloody murder. I am sure it was the coldest he's ever been in his life. I don't know how long he was crying because time seems to stand still in moments like those but we kept pressing forward. Brett ran ahead to find some help or at least get the car from the back of the parking lot and get it warmed up for our return. Many silent prayers were offered by all of us, I am sure. At one point I had a towel draped over my head and covering Chase while my friend led me down the hill. That didn't last long because the arm Chase was in was giving in. The kid is over 20 lbs now. I also spent some of the time trying to walk backward to shield Chase from the elements. When we were probably still about a mile out, a ranger came in a truck and was our knight in shining armor. We were rescued at last. Chase calmed down almost immediately. The ranger explained that this kind of storm was very uncommon, but it's an El Nino year and sometimes these storms do occur. He was going up to rescue poor souls like us because of the danger of flash flooding.

Needless to say, I really felt like an extremely terrible mother. I wanted to do more for Chase but couldn't. At the same time, I was pretty calm because I knew the ordeal wasn't going to kill any of us and it would be over soon, even if we had to have walked the whole way back. I am sooo grateful we didn't have to though. Anyway, we want to try the hike again. The part we did do was really fun but we will make sure the forecast doesn't call for rain, we'll bring our river shoes and we won't bring any kids. Lesson learned!

Before the adventure began. We are still dry and smiling.

Here we are starting the hike at our first small water crossing. You can see how we were bundled up nicely. Chase even had gloves on. Just above this point, on the way back, is where the ranger rescued us. He pointed out to me that the water crossing the bridge had become muddy which is a sign of possible flash flooding.

Our first and last real river crossing. We took such great care not to get our shoes wet. Ha! Like that ended up mattering. Right after this, is when the rain really picked up.


Trying the keep the babe warm and dry. This was when it was still somewhat possible.

Even in times like these, there is still some romance.

Here's our little trooper. We had stopped at a sheltered bench for a time before setting out again. It was shortly after that that the wind and hail started coming and Chase really made his discomfort known.