NetNude Gathering Shangri La Report

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NetNude Gathering Report 2002 at
Shangri La Resort in Arizona

April 2002

I arrived at the Phoenix airport at about 12:45 PM, MST, on April 13, 2002, ready and eager for the 2002 NetNude gathering. After picking up my rental car I drove out via I-10W and I-17N, following the directions which appear on the web page for Shangri La II Ranch. (I would recommend a slightly different route than the one given on the web site; now that I have learned the area a little, I would stay on I-17 to exit 232 and taking New River Road east to Shangri La Lane.) Arriving a little after 2:00 PM, I was warmly greeted in the office by Patty, and checked into the lodge, which was to be party central for the next week.

The lodge is a house which was the residence of the former owners. Originally a three-bedroom house, it has two additional rooms which have been converted to spacious bedrooms, so that five couples can be accommodated very comfortably; additional persons would have to have cots/rollaway beds brought in, or crash on the floor or living room couch. There is a private bathroom for the master bedroom, and one additional bathroom shared by the other four rooms. There are plans to add one or two addtional bathrooms, but there is no projected date for that to occur. The rental cost of a room includes grounds fees for two persons per room. I cannot really comment on the cost, as we received a special discount for NetNude.

As the first arrival I had my choice of rooms, except that our illustrious webmistress had specified that the master bedroom (the one with a private bath) was hers! Since I was by myself, I elected to take one of the two other original bedrooms, leaving the more spacious added rooms for couples. Having staked my claim and checked out the accommodations, I headed out to the local Target for important supplies: watergun, snacks, etc. and then to the local Safeway for wine, beer, and oh, yes, food!

Back at Shangri La, I stripped off and went on a tour of the grounds. Located in the Arizona desert, Shangri La has many varieties of cactus and other desert plants. Mountains overlook the site, creating a lovely vista from within the resort. A nice pool and sunning area has a gathering room, called Millenium Hall, immediately adjacent. A hot tub and sauna are also nearby, the Bare Buns Bistro (our own ggnaked, proprietor) is in the close vicinity, and between the hot tub and the Bare Buns Bistro, the club house is under construction. The hope is to finish the construction before the Southwest Naturist Gathering on the weekend of April 26-28, but I have my doubts that will happen. Unfortunately, the pool table is in the construction area, and remained unavailable for our entire visit.

When I returned to the lodge I discovered that Jan, PhilM, and Shelley had arrived from Toronto. After greetings and settling in we began discussing plans for the coming week. They had stopped to shop on the way, so we reviewed what we had purchased to determine what our additional needs might be. I needed some wading shoes for fording the Verde River on our excursion to the Verde Hot Springs, scheduled for Tuesday, so I went to a nearby outlet mall (at Anthem Way, exit 229 on I-17) and purchased a pair of inexpensive waterproof sandals. I also went to the Safeway and picked up some additional supplies we had identified as needed. We had a delicious meal at the Bare Buns Bistro, and enjoyed an evening of discussing the plans for the week and consuming snacks and drinks.

Sunday morning I awoke early (5:30) and got up and made the coffee. When the other occupants of the lodge emerged there were vociferous complaints about the amount of noise I had made at such an early hour, even though I tried very hard to be quiet. This was to be a continuing reason to abuse me throughout the week, even though I forced myself to remain in bed until 6:00!. <G> I used the tap water, which we later learned from ggnaked was a mistake; he informed us that all of the water there has a high arsenic content. That created a requirement for another trip to the Safeway for bottled water. We picked up 10 gallons for starters, along with additional items we had determined to be necessities.

Right next to the lodge was a small building which contained some exercise equipment, and in one corner of which EXCELLENT massages were given. It became our routine when someone in our group went to get a massage to fill our waterguns and wait outside the door for the nicely relaxed person to come out, when they were blasted with mucho water. While Shelley was getting her massage, the gentleman who is the DJ for the Saturday night karaoke went in to use the exercise equipment. When Shelley came out, she was holding the DJ in front of her and holding her watergun to his head, and making statements like, "One shot from any of you and he gets it in the head!" Of course we didn't let a situation like that deter us from blasting both of them!

Phil, Shelley, and Jan went to Glendale to ride the steam trains (which turned out not to be running), and I went shopping for supplies. We received our rendezvous instructions for Tuesday's excursion from ggnaked, and welcomed the arrival of NevadaNaturist and mjc, who had rented a four-wheel-drive vehicle and would be one of the drivers for the trip to the Verde Hot Springs. We made contact with Kirk and Dale (who unfortunately would be leaving on Monday) and Ron and Cathie. Some time by the pool and some more exploring the resort ensued.

Monday Jan, mjc, and I went to the Safeway again to buy more supplies (water, snacks, limes, booze)... and to the outlet mall for backpacks, etc. More exploring of Shangri La and pool time. Then, of course, we had to test the booze.

Tuesday morning we met ggnaked and LadyD at the McDonald's at the Camp Verde exit of I-17, about an hour's drive north from Shangri La. We spread ourselves out in three four-wheel-drive vehicles: ggnaked, LadyD, their dog Emily, and Shelley in ggnaked's Isuzu Trooper; mjc, Jan, PhilM, and me in the Explorer rented by mjc; and Bobby and NevadaNaturist in Bobby's truck. Withe the vehicles in that order, we drove east on state road 260 to the turnoff on Fossil Creek Road. A short distance along this road, we stopped to shift to four wheel drive, as this road is "not maintained" and is a washboard gravel/clay/dirt road with lots of rocks, climbs, descents, and sharp turns. mjc had provided handheld radios for himself and ggnaked; the omission of a radio for the third vehicle was corrected at one of our en route stops. ggnaked would give us warning of especially dangerous spots, approaching vehicles (in some places the road was too narrow for vehicles to pass), and cows in the road over the radio.

Jan was seated on the left side of the second seat, PhilM was on the right, and I was in the front passenger seat of our vehicle. After a couple of switchback turns, and a lot of places where the cliff on the left was straight up and the dropoff on the right was straight down, Jan said very calmly, "If it was me I'd keep to the left." Later this became "Keep left!" Then it became "LEFT! LEFT! LEFT!" Eventually Jan said, "I'll pay for any damage on the left side of the car!" This sequence of "comments" is what led to ggnaked's post in the Chat section on Wednesday.

At one point ggnaked said on the radio, "Cow in the road." When we rounded the curve and caught up with him, we discovered about 50 head of cattle in the road, herded by two cowboys on horses. Us guys were commenting, "Look at those cows!" Jan's comment was, "Did you see those chaps?" The herd included two bulls; as the herd flowed around us, the horns of one of the bulls passed about two or three inches from our vehicle. We speculated about how mjc would explain to Hertz that the Explorer had been gored by a bull!

Jan objected to mjc's removing one hand from the wheel to operate the radio, so he handed the radio to me. The push-to-talk button had a small blue button embedded in it, so at one point I asked mjc what the blue button was for (it was performed a squelch function). For some reason both Jan and PhilM objected to my asking the question while mjc was driving. I can't imagine why they thought it was a problem! <G>

At the end of the road is a campsite on the bank of the Verde River. From here it is necessary to ford the river, hike upriver about a half mile until a steep rock blocks further travel, ford the river again and hike about 100 yards, then ford the river a third time to the location of the hot springs. The first two crossings were not bad; the water was about mid-thigh on me. The last crossing, however, was a bit deeper. It was up to ggnaked's waist, and as Jan pointed out, that was about neck-deep for her!

Of course by this time our clothes were thoroughly drenched. When we climbed up to the springs, we discovered only one couple there, and they were already naked. We all stripped off and spread out our clothes to dry, then checked out the springs. The water is between 100 degrees and 104 degrees Fahrenheit, depending upon whether you are in the outside pool or the enclosed one. It is laden with minerals, which ggnaked told us was basically arsenic salts. After a time we ate the food which we had brought (we had already been consuming the beer), and some of us began to explore the area. There had been a hotel just above the springs from 1922 to 1962, and some of the ruins are still there. The river has some rapids and some calm stretches along this section, and the scenery is beautiful!

I managed to get burned, but nonetheless it was a thoroughly enjoyable day! Going back, we were smarter, and most of us, at least, stayed naked until we had completed our three fords of the river. Much more comfortable!

Of course, on the return trip, Jan sat on the other side of the SUV, and now wanted us to stay RIGHT! <LOL>

Wednesday Jan, NevadaNaturist, and I hiked up the mountain outside the resort (which meant we had to wear clothes). It was a delightful hike. We didn't go up the highest mountain, but the one next to it, and because of my high blood pressure I didn't go up as far as Jan and NevadaNaturist. Pool time, and just general relaxing took up the rest of the day.

Thursday more NetNuders arrived, and I'll leave the description of the remaining time to others. I'm told that Phil will be more than happy to finish this!

Bob P.

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