Box Canyon? More like Trail of Tears.

As summer comes to a final and complete stop, so do my crazy adventures.
And to be honest, this is an adventure I should have opted out of.
Before I left my brand-spanking-new dorm room (I moved in!) I felt I should stay. There are a slew of bonding activities here in Taylor Place, and I want to get to know the kids in my hall. But the draw of nature, and the hope of a beautiful weekend awaited me. So I ignored that little voice in my head and just went on the trip anyway.
Big mistake.
Anyway. The plan was to leave at 10 am on Saturday morning. I, Andie and Natalie were coming from Phoenix, while Ben, Jon, and Ben's friends David and Austin were coming from Pinetop/Lakeside. Thankfully, our meeting point was halfway between us.
After telling Ben we were leaving at 10, he said that was a little too late. So, after waking up early to the sun shining through my window (I need to either buy curtains or just get used to this) and reading Ben's "If you can, leave earlier" text, I decided "Hm, let's leave earlier."
So around 8:30, I went to pick up Andie and Natalie, grab a few groceries, and grab my backpack from my house.
Two hours later, we finally left Sprout's and then my house, and left Phoenix.
Which I am okay with. (Minus the fact that my nearly only pet peeve is not leaving on time for vacation. I don't care if I'm running late to anything else, but I better be darn on time to leave for vacation.) The boys slept in and were running later than they expected, and we tried to run early at least, but it just didn't work. We ended up arriving at the Box Canyon Trailhead at the exact same time, nearly.
Introductions were made between all of us and David and Austin.
Cars were locked, Camelbaks were taken without cell phones for fear of water damage, and for the same reason, my camera was left in my car as well.
And this is where this turns from a travel post into a whining post. I apologize.
The trek started out climbing up an embankment on the other side of Highway 260, and finding ourselves in a thicket of mud and plants and stuff. The plants were everywhere and they were scratchy. Not fun.
So we get through that, I'm just a little miffed and frustrated because of the early morning events (aka, running late.) So I'm walking and talking with Natalie in the back of the group, Andie is in front of me. She looks back and says "Watch out, there's a wasp near by."
I think, "Okay, I'll just walk by, not bother it. I'll be good."
I walk by.
I'm not good.
I feel a stinging sensation on my back and wonder what it is, then realize. And the stinging turns into a searing. And then my arm starts hurting. And then I freak out and after enough angered dancing and screaming, it flies away and I am in tears. I want to go back to the car, but I can see all the beautiful rocks and trees and the river at the bottom of Box Canyon and decide to press on.
In tears.
Soon I realize this isn't just a hike, it is a full body rock-scaling adventure. And after I have scaled my fair share of rocks, all while trying to avoid all the wasps (read: hornets), I come upon a conundrum.
To get down to the next pool, I either had to jump down an 8-10 foot rock face, or jump off a 15-20 foot waterfall. To which I said "Nope. NopeNopenopenope. I'm done." and sat down in frustration.
On a cactus.
I sat on a FLIPPING CACTUS.
And then I stood up and yelled, "Andie COME GET THIS CACTUS OFF MY BUTT!!!"
Break from complaining: I probably would have died from a panic attack in this canyon if it weren't for Andie Miller. I am so thankful for this woman. Now, back to complaining.
So I'm standing there, crying, still and again, she comes over and takes all the stickers out, and we decide "You know what, nope. We're not continuing on. Let's just hang out here at this nice pool of water (where there are more wasps and one almost lands on me. My life.)
This is the part where the weekend gets a little bit better. We left the canyon and I didn't get stung by any more wasps. We got to the camp ground and took turns taking part in setting up the 8 person tent for the 7 of us, right before it began to rain.
It rained as it turned from day to night.

We sat in the tent and played guitar.
After it stopped raining, we made soup.
Pretty much your basic camping trip.
We went to bed, slightly squished close together even though it was an 8 person tent and there were 7 of us.
We woke up, played more music, played with bb guns and hatchets and stuff, and left.
Andie, who injured her knee, and I went into Payson while Natalie, Ben, Austin and David went to hike Box Canyon again.
We got back together around four, picked up Natalie, and said goodbye to the boys as they went back to Pinetop and as we returned to Phoenix.

To end this post on a positive note, here are 5 things I did that I enjoyed.

1. I waded through an incredibly beautiful stream at the bottom of Box Canyon. That was fun.
2. Scaling rocks is fun, just not when you've been stung by a wasp. But scaling rocks was definitely fun.
3. I got to play guitar while Andie played banjo.
4. I shot a can off a tree right after Austin placed it there. I wasn't even really aiming my BB gun well, either.
5. I got a fairly good night of sleep and didn't freeze to death.

Viva Naturaleza