It's Rodeo Time!

Today is event day - it is the 15th Annual Tucson Gathering: Rodeo! hosted by Martini Man and Wisconsin Hiker at Catalina State Park in Oro Valley. I had gotten the clues from Wisconsin Hiker yesterday at the Padre Kino's Quest event. Thomas and I spent part of the afternoon yesterday finding ten boxes at the park. So today it is about meeting everyone at the pavilion and doing some more letterboxing.

We started the day early and headed out to the park to continue letterboxing a bit before the event started. At the park we went back to the Equestrian Center to find two boxes that we didn't have time for yesterday. We left the parking area and took a trail around a hill to find those two boxes. We easily found Bronco Rider by Dawgdok and Catalina Roundup by Shutterbug2012. I stamped in to both boxes and got them back into place. Then we headed to the Picnic Area and met up with everyone at the pavilion. I first got the event stamp and then did a couple of exhanges and spent a little time visiting before heading out on the trails to get some boxes. Thomas and I left the pavilion with Lee, Pappasky and Gage and headed to the Trailhead Parking. From the parking lot we crossed over to the trails and took the Birding Trail. We hiked the one mile loop to find the 7 C's of Arizona series by Wisconsin Hiker. This was a pretty easy hike and we had no trouble finding all the boxes. As we completed the loop we were back at the trailhead and this time we took the Romero Canyon Trail to the Canyon Loop Trail to the Sutherland Trail. As we hiked this route we found nine boxes in the Big Rodeo Series. The boxes in this series were carved by different people - Sailfish, Chill-E, Shooting Starz and Shutterbug2012. On this hike we also found a single box that wasn't part of the event - Old Prospector: Abandoned Truck by Lee. This was a harder and longer hike. More uphill and about 3 miles but we did it and found all nine of the boxes. When we reached the end of the trail we were close to the parking lot. We decided to take a break and head back to the pavilion for some lunch (since it was already 1:00pm). We spent about an hour at the pavilion getting something to eat, doing some exchanges and visiting. Then around 2:00pm we all headed out again (except for Thomas) and this time did boxes that were on trails close to the pavilion. We hiked the Bridle Trail (and some small off shoot trails) and found 13 boxes. These boxes were by different carvers - Jolly Mon in the Stirrup by Jolly Mon (3 boxes); Rodeo Gear by SnakeDoctor (6 boxes); Appaloosa Horse by whitetail92 (1 box) and "It's That Damned Old Rodeo" by the man with no name (3 boxes). When we finished these boxes the trail lead us right back to the pavilion.

Back at the pavilion people were packing up since it was 5:20pm and the event was coming to an end. I did a few more exchanges and we visited a little before heading out for one last box on the way out of the park, just down the road from the pavilion. Thomas and I stopped at the Bobcat Amphitheater to find Let's Go to a . . . by Waneta Wench. This was a short walk and easy find and we were back at the car in no time. It was getting dark and the event was done. Now time for some dinner. About 25 of us went to El Molinito for some Mexican food.

At 8:30pm we said our goodbyes and left the restaurant. We had an excellent meal and we were tired. I logged 12 miles on my FitBit and found 33 boxes and all I wanted was a shower and the bed. It was an excellent event and I found some great stamps. They are talking about rain all day tomorrow so we will see if we can get any letterboxing done.