Are We lost Yet?

This is NOT the Cottonwood Creek Trail [247] that I wrote about earlier as part of the CCC Loop. Cottonwood #120 leads from Lake Roosevelt towards the Superstition Mountains. It is part of the AZ trail.

DATE HIKED: 23 December 2007

COMPANIONS: Ben

ACTUAL HIKE TIME: 4 hours 45 minutes

ACTUAL MILEAGE: 8.7

For some reason, I do not have a start and end time noted in my log, though I did note that we got a late start.  I also didn’t have a camera, which is sad, because this hike is quite scenic.

This very moment (mid April 2009) Lake Roosevelt is 100%+ capacity, and thus quite a site as you’re panting at the cattle guard.

A paragraph from my description of this hike appears in some of the marketing materials.

I actually stopped at the cattle gate, because Ben had stopped way back in the trees.  Looking forward to taking this trail the whole distance someday. It would be an easy car-shuttle assuming one vehicle is 4WD.

From my notes:

The full moon rising over the mountains on the other side of
the lake as we reached our car in twilight was the most beautiful part of the
hike – and that’s saying something.

[Part of the ongoing behind-the-hike series for the Tonto Guide.]

This hike follows the Ballantine Trail around Boulder Mountain towards Pine Mountain. I hiked it twice, and there’s still ore left that I want to explore.

HIKE 1 = to be quick = On 2 December 2007 Ben and I did the Pine Creek trail to the Ballantine junction and continued about a half mile beyond. The photo in Ben’s Hiking Essentials (one of this blog’s first entries) is from this hike. That makes a super-easy kid’s hike - but not enough of a hike to justify a full entry. So I went back to hike a more substantial portion.

HIKE 2 (The Main Hike)

HIKE DATE: 20 March 2008

COMPANIONS: None

ACTUAL MILES: 11.3

START TIME: 10:15 AM    END TIME: 4:45PM
The Forest Service description does not mention the cabin. I found the route through other sources. The dirt bike trail that eventually led me back to the Ballantine was a happy if accidental discovery.

I did not mention (or photograph) the more recent remains of dead cattle lying about. Don’t just casually drink any water you find in the stream.

Ballantine goes on from the turn-around I used for the guidebook to go around Pine Moutain and down to Cline TH. Cline TH needs HC/4WD vehicles to reach. If you want to do the entire trail, a fairly heroic quest, start from the Cline side, because that starts with a steep and sporadically marked ascent that you want no part of with fading daylight. The western portions of the Ballantine, though, particularly the Deer Creek spur would not prove too troublesome by flashlight.

My son is still mad that I went back and finished this trail without him.

This was supposed to be an overnight hike circumnavigating the Cave Creek Complex, but it took two different hikes.

Hike 1

DATE HIKED: 8+9 mARCH 2008

COMPANION: Ben

START TIME: Noon 3/8

END TIME: about 11 AM 3/9

ACTUAL MILES: 13.6

Ben and I started the tough but rewarding hike up (and I mean up) Cottonwood Creek trail with every intention of completing the loop back to Spur Cross. The late start is instructive - uphill most of the way, middle-aged man and junior aged boy made little better than 1.2 miles an hour, and consequently, it was well past dark when we finally decided we were lost, and we might as well camp at the next good spot.

In the morning, that spot turned out to be 50′ from the trail.

It also became apparent that I had a serious chest infection, with accompanying fever, and that hiking uder load was not improving it any at all. So we made for the campground near the Cave creek trailhead, and some nice campers gave a ride into Carefree, where we loitered pathetically at the Circle K until my wife could pick us up.

Second Hike

A day hike - an arranged car shuttle, going down Cave Creek trail back to Spur Cross. Just pretend, as I did writing the guidebook, that this was the second day of the overnight.

DATE HIKED: 19 April 2008

COMPANIONS: Ben (against his better judgement - more below) (And Jayson, who helped with the car shuttle)

START TIME: 10:45 AM

END TIME: 6:49pm

ACTUAL MILES:  11.45 miles

Ben had hurt his foot the week before. We (mostly he) thought it was all better, but halfway down the trail we realized that was increasingly untrue. I applied a liberal layer of mole-padding to his heal,. and he managed to limp all the way out to the car, but he was whining towards the end - which is not at all typical for him.

We encountered a gila monster going into Chalk Canyon. The 2 foot, brown and tan reptile for showed no inclination towards yielding the trail so, against my son’s specific advice, I encouraged it by throwing rocks into the ground next to it. Grudgingly, it moved aside.

I gotta try this hike again!

Neither Jacob’s Crosscut nor Treasure Loop are in the Superstition Wilderness proper, but they go along the western slopes of the mountain range.

Date Hiked: 27 December 2007

Companions: Ben

Actual Hiking time: 11:30am to 6:30 pm

My mileage notes are deceptive because we actually hiked the entirety of Jacob’s Crosscut, even though the guide hike  has the loop around at Treasure Loop. Once you get past (north) of Treause Loop and the State Park, you get into some relatively pristine and lonely desert. You cross a couple of washes, and then follow the barbed-wire fence until you hit Crosscut Trailhead. This makes for a stupid-easy car-shuttle if so desired.

I deliberately mentioned the restroom at Lost Dutchman State Park because that section of the trail is Far Too Crowded to simply relieve yourself on a palo verde tree.

Why yes, 6:30pm is well past sunset in December. This is why I always carry a flashlight.

Freind of this blog, Roxxan Lizzie has a Flickr set of photos from her hike. She ran out of daylight too.

We lost Bongo, my beloved plastic gorrilla which I used to photograph on my various travels. He has yet to be adequately replaced. I once assumed this blog would be dedicated to Bongo photos, but alas, he is lost. He might still be out there, but the trail gets serious traffic, and its been over a year. I like to think some child found him and is enjoying him for what he is.

Have you seen this toy?

Pass Mountain and Fish Rock Pass

[Part of a series of beyond the page info of the hikes covered in Day and Overnight Hikes in the Tonto National Forest.]

Hiked: 23 November 2008

Companions: Ben and Carolyn ( a co-worker)

More info about the Goldfield Mtns Here.

We actually intended to only hike Pass Mountain Loop. But early on, we took the wide trail that runs along side of the wash, instead of crossing the wash, and didn’t realize the error until we were already on top of bulldog saddle.

So this is one of the Happy Accident hikes in the guidebook.

We circled around the east and then north slopes of Peak 3163 until we re-united with the Pass Mtn trail, where we ate lunch, and engaged in a bit of (futile) geo-caching.

I learned that there is such a thing as productively lost.

I also learned that I have enough trouble getting back to the car by sunset (a side-effect becoming productively lost) without adding geo-caching to the itinerary.

Carolyn is as fearless as I am, which has many advantages, but it left Ben as the sole Voice of Restraint on the expedition.

The cholla "family"

We proceeded counterclockwise around Pass Mountain. That trail is quite a change in culture from the Fish Rock route. While we saw no other people going around Peak 3163, we saw plenty of folks, and dogs, going around Pass Mountain. Too crowded to just hop off the trail and water a palo verde tree, so the restroom on the west side was quite a relief.

I returned on Nov 28^th the finish the one section of Pass Mountain that we missed.

The photo of the rock cairn on pg 51 of the guidebook comes from this hike.

Going around the shores of Saguaro Lake.

Tonto NF Services description here.

Flickr set here.

Round Trip 5.25 miles

Date hiked: 5 January 2008

Companions: Ben and Julie

Notes: The overcast day did not lend itself to photography. We were sprinkled on, but te weater was otherwise mild.

This was Julie’s only hike for the guide (she was 8). Our actual hike time was just over 4 hours.

This is the shortest and probably the easiset hike in the guide.

Ben and Julie going down into Burrow Cove

Today

My son, Ben, has prepared a list of hiking essentials (reprinted here with his permission).

LET US BEGIN WITH THE TEN ESSENTIALS. (LISTED BELOW)
1.FIRST AID KIT
2.JACKET
3.LUNCH
4.RAIN PONCHO
5.FLASHLIGHT
6.MAP OR G.P.S. (GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM)
FIRST AID ESSENTIALS
7.BANDAIDS
8.TWEEZERS
9.PAIN PADS
10.SPIRIT
IF YOU HAVE THESE YOU ARE PREPARED.

FIRST AND FOREMOST BE CAREFUL WHO YOU BRING! THE LAST THING YOU WANT IS A RUINED TRIP BECAUSE OF SOMEONE YOU BRING! SO YOU MIGHT WANT TO CONSIDER EXCLUDING MEAN OLD UNCLE JOE WHO HATES SUNSHINE AND BUGS.

Now, for some adult guidance in correlation with the above.
By “pain pads” he means molefoam padding, which is how we got him and his bruised foot out of Cave Creek.
Obviously, a lot of those items could be assumed to be in a good first aid kit.

The line about mean old Uncle Joe came more-or-less from the Tonto guidebook camping tips. That, in turn, was adapted from a template based on Kim Lipker’s Day and Overnight Hikes in the Rocky Mountain National Park.
Add water to your list. If you’re out in the desert - add more water than you think necessary.
I have humped up hills with more water than I really needed, and I have run out of water with miles left to go and the afternoon only getting hotter. There is no question in my mind which I prefer.

These are the adult 10 essentials:
1) water
2) food
3) first aid kit ( band-aids
4) flashlight
5) jacket/rain poncho (or at least one extra layer)
6) knife or multi-tool
7) map/compass and/or GPS
bandana
9) sunscreen (I always forget this)

10) Spirit!

(Or, alternately, a signal device such as a mirror or a whistle).