Are We lost Yet?

You can see the smoke from as far south as Sunset Point.

I drove up there today thinking, “Wow, the wind is really kicking up the smoke from the Eagle Rock fire…” The Eagle Rock fire has been burning for several days northwest of Flagstaff, but is mostly contained.

Wrong. Flagstaff had three different wildfires burning today, basically within city limits. Two are still going. One is still going unchecked.

Most threatening is the Schultz Fire, in the heavily wooded Schultz Pass separating Mt. Elden from the San Francisco Peaks. That fire, zero percent contained at this writing, is forcing evacuations, and has closed AZ 89 just north of town.

The Scultz fire has spread over 5000 acres, and its cause is unknown.

Flagstaff city spokeswoman Kimberly Ott told the Associated Press, “It’s torching, it’s crowning — all the things you don’t want it to do.” Winds gusts up to 50 mph are accelerating the fire.

Aside from life and property, this fire also threatens some of the best hiking trails in the area. Earlier today, there was some concern about some hikers still in the burn area, but they have all been accounted for.

Two other smaller fires were started and contained or controlled by the end of the day.

The Hardy Fire, which erupted in southeastern Flag - near the “country club” region is contained. It was started by an unattended campfire, and a California man has been arrested in connection.

A third fire flared up near western I-40 from a car fire, but was contained within hours.

However big the smoke plume looks in the photos, its bigger than that from in town.

NAZ Today has been providing good local coverage.

I have contracted with Menasha Ridge Press (our fine host here) to write 5 Star Hikes - Flagstaff and Sedona (or some very similar title. It’s not official until it gets an ISBN)

The following is adapted from the style guide:

Five-Star Trails combines elements of the popular 60/60 series (60 Hikes within 60 Miles of . . . [city]) with those of the D&O series (Day & Overnight Hikes in. . . [national forests, national parks, other wilderness areas]). [...]
Like the 60/60 series, Five-Star books typically cover hiking in and around cities, but Five-Star books’ anchor locations are smaller urban areas than those chosen for 60/60. For example, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Atlanta are 60/60 topics, whereas Spokane, Boise, and Chattanooga are examples of cities that fit the Five-Star profile. Also, Five-Star books present only 30 to 40 hikes-or half- to two-thirds as many as the 60/60 series.
In common with the D&O series, a Five-Star Trails book provides starred ratings in several categories presented in a box at the top of each new hike entry.
Unlike the D&O series, Five-Star Trails is geared to day-hikes and rarely touches on camping or extended trail time.

I have already started work on the guide and have several Sedona area hikes completed (the hiking anyway):

Airport Mesa Loop

Brin’s Mesa / Soldier Pass

Bell Trail (Wet Beaver Creek)

Woods Canyon trail (Dry Beaver Creek) (Yes, these creek names are real)

Lime Kiln Trail (the whole 15+ miles)

Verde River Greenbelt

MRP’s publicity packet suggests I blog somewhere about how the hike actually went (since the book has almost no personal references), and a few notes to supplement the information in the guide.

What a swell idea.

You can expect some posts on those hikes, and all the others as we go.

Monday, I’m hiking the Lime-Kiln trail, a 15 mile route that historically connected Cottonwood and Sedona, but more recently connects Dead Horse SP with Red Rock SP. This is practical because I have a car-shuttle arranged.

I suspect I will go ahead and camp overnight at Dead Horse.

Tuesday will be two short hikes - TBD.

The ink hasn’t dried on the contract, but I’m going to announce anyway:

I am writing a new guidebook for Menasha Ridge Press!

(and you thought this was a dead blog).

More details when I have time to compose with clarity.

Meanwhile, for the benefit of a very select audience, my itinerary for the next two days:

Thursday, 4/6/10:

Travel to Sedona; establish a camp at Wet Beaver Creek; Hike Brin’s Mesa and Soldier Pass trail; Hike a portion of Airport Loop to Bandit, then Caroll Canyon. Buy some beer. Sleep.

Friday 4/7/10:

Clarify a remaining mystery on Bell Trail; break camp; Hike Woods Canyon trail (up Dry Beaver Creek), return home.

Local conditions may force changes. My cel phone works in most of the area.

Gotta go! More when I get back.

The things you learn when you google your own name once in a while…

http://www.menasharidge.com/product.php?productid=16862

*This is a special bundled digital edition of this book. Buy the book at full price and get instant access to a downloadable pdf version. So it’s two copies for the price of one!*

Says my publisher. So you could load this on your smart-phone and not have to hike with the physical book.

The week before last, I had a camping trip all arranged - and then everybody backed out but me.

I went anyways, free from logistical negotiations (or the company of others).On my journey, I stopped to take pictures for my ongoing camping blog [column?] for Examiner.com. These will all eventually turn into articles, and I’ll link them here as they go online.

North of Globe, state highway 288 splits from 188 just past the east end of Lake Roosevelt, and begins to climb up into the Sierra Ancha Mountains. Don’t let the highway designation fool ya, AZ288 winds and dips and is only partially paved. I stopped and took photos of Sawmill Flats and Rose Creek campgrounds.

To the west is Salome Wilderness where lies Hell’s Hole. To the East is the Sierra Ancha wilderness, where I hiked the Sierra Ancha Superloop.

North of the wilderness areas, the road rolls through juniper scrub and finally into Pleasant Valley, where lies the town of Young. Finding a meal in Young has always challenged me, but I came upon Buddi’s Gas and Minimart, where the nice lady sold me a microwaved burrito. That’s the best meal service I’ve ever gotten in that community, built mostly by and for retirees and their hobby ranches. Tourists are somewhat beside the point.

Just north of Young, I split left to take FR 200 up Haigler Canyon to visit two more campgrounds. I stopped to read a sign about the Heber-Reno Sheep Driveway, a 3 mile wide corridor through which Basque herders drive sheep up to their summer pastures on top of the Mogollon Rim in the spring, and then back down to their winter pastures outside of Chandler in September. I literally thought to myself, “It’s September. Maybe I’ll see some…”

And there they were, on the other side of the road. The herder I talked to said they’d been on the trail for about three days. Photos on my other blog (because I’m outta space here): What Have We Learned.

It was raining on and off, but the gravel of FR 200 held firm. Alderwood Campground is remote, despite being tucked behind a small housing development. Haigler Canyon is more developed, but was empty save for cows when I visited. Even the hosts were gone.

FR200 dumps into FR 291, which dumps into AZ 260 - which is a real highway. I took that to the visitor’s center atop the rim, then cut through the FR 171 camping area, where a number of numbered campsites sit right on top of the Mogollon Rim. This is where I was with the kids when we were rained out prior to our General Crook Trail hike a few years ago. (Still one of my favorite articles.)

FR171 joins - yep - AZ288 on the other side, where I turned south towards a quartet of campgrounds in the NE corner of the Tonto NF. I had been warned that the Rodeo-Chedaski fire of several years ago had devastated the whole area, but I can report that while you can certainly see wide swaths of damage, the campgrounds are just fine.

Colcord Ridge

Airplane Flats

Valentine Ridge

and Upper Canyon Creek, where I ultimately camped.

There is a listed trail near Valentine Ridge (#550) which was scratched from my itinerary late in the guidebook days. It is geared (and graded) towards mountain bikes, so now I’m glad I skipped it.

The next morning I woke up, got to wear a jacket for a few hours (those not from Phoenix do not realize how special that is by September) and burned back to the valley to take care of other things.

Next time - more behind-the-hike stuff.

After our dayhike to Tule Mesa, Ben and I drove to Salt Flat campground and spent the night.

The Prescott National Forest has vague criteria for what is and is not a fee area. Essentially, though, it boils down to water, toilets and some sort of full-time host. Salt Flat has none of this - so its free. It does have picnic tables and fire rings - though the Prescott is currently under fire restrictions.

We woke up in the morning, packed our bags, threw the balance into the vehicle, and crossed the dry wash to the Salt Flat TH, where the Nelson Trail begins.

The Nelson is the central trail for the Pine Mountain Wilderness - just about every other trai connectes with it a some point.

We soon reached the Nelson Place, which consists of remnant stone walls and huge trees (Arizona sycamore, cottonwood, oaks) growing from Nelson Springs. These springs are the only reliable fresh water in the area, inconveniently located less than a mile from the TH. In fact, we soon came upon a pair of backpackers on their way out who reported that all the other springs they came across had been dry.

Which is why I was lugging five liters of water.

All of which I would end up using.

From the Nelson, we went east on the Willow Springs Trail. Willow Springs seemed dry, but there were some puddles in the streambed. Ah well. That trail climbs up Willow Canyon until it meets the Verde Rim Trail - the other main trail in the wilderness. At that junction, we had climbed about a thousand feet in four miles.

Verde Rim features jaw-dropping views of the Verde Valley to the east - the good part where the Wild and Scenic portion flows in front of the Mazazatl Wilderness. On a clear day, such as that one, you can see Horshoe Lake far to the SE.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that it keeps climbing as you head south.

[If you go north, though, you will eventually come upon a jeep trail that will lead you to Cavalier Point - a plan that we rejected only after much debate.]

Soon, you start switching back up the slopes f Pine Mountain, coming within 500′ of the peak. At that point, the signed spur trail to the top is certainly worth the marginal extra exertion.

Past Pine Mountain, we began to wind down the ridge, crossing limestone-covered ridges, and fiannly descending into some pine forest, where we camped.

Having emtied our water, we found ourselves filling our bottles from a deep, but bug-infested puddle while mosquitoes filled themselves on us. Even though I got to use all my filter/chemical/boil methodology, the effort was not recreational, and we decided to opt out of  our optional second night.

Instead, we returned to the Nelson Trail, follwoing it through pine forest both burned-out and pristine, and back to our car.

Total estimated mileage: 14

Total hike time: 14 hours

Pine Mountain Wilderness is obscure and poorly documented compared to some other wilderness areas, but the trails are in good shape, and the journey is worth it - providing you come prepared.

Photos on my personal blog (where I have bandwidth left): What Have We Learned?

If you take FR68 east of Dugas (which is not actually a town, but the remains of a settlement crumbling on what is now private ranch land) you will come to a Y. Your decision: take the easy road (right) towards the Salt Flats “campground” and the Pine Mountain Wilderness, or take the left fork, dubbed 68G towards - well the edge of the cliff.

If you read last post, you know which one I took.

The signs become increasingly ominous about the “primitive” and “unmaintained” nature of 68G, and, true to the warnings, the road becomse worse the farther you go in.

About 4 miles in, as I’m prodding my 06 Chevy Equinox through what is essentially a trench filled with lava rock, we have to back up to allow an older couple in a Toyota 4X4 Truck to get past us. The man says, swear to God, “You haven’t gotten to the really rocky part yet…”

A mile later, we got to it. And there, I found the Equinox Filter: a stair of rock about 20″ high that spun the tires of my HC but definitely Front-wheel-Drive crossover (pretend) SUV no matter which angle I tried. When I had smelt enough of my own burning rubber, I backed it up, and found a place to park the thing.

Yeah - that’s right - I couldn’t get the Equinox as far as I got the Cavalier. It may be a sign of wisdom, or it may be a sign of deeper erosion in the road. In any case, Ben and I climbed out and hiked the remaining three miles or so to Cavalier Point: a sizeable juniper just off the road from the cattleguard that separates the 68G from “Verde Hot Springs Road”. The latter road is marked as “Unfit for Public Travel” and is officially closed to motor vehicles at this writing.

My  straps were long gone.

We did, however find the norther terminus to something called Trail #27 which goes into the largely undocumented Cedar Bench Wilderness that covers half the northern slope of Tule Mesa. The southern terminus is, in theory, a graded dirt trailhead near Camp Verde. I’m adding that to my To Do list.

Meanwhile, while daylight remained, Ben and I drover around the other fork in the road - to Pine Mountain. That account will be the next post.

Photos on my personal blog (where I have bandwidth left): What Have We Learned?

About five years ago, Ben (then 7) and I climbed into a Chevy Cavalier and headed off for Fossil Springs. My plan was to intorduce Ben to backpacking. The problem wit this plan was that I was driving.

From Phoenix, I-17 to AZ 260 to FR720 seemed kinda dull, especially when my AZ Gazetteer showed a more direct route through Dugas. I should not here, in some feeble defense, that the Gazetteer does nt reliably indicate a road’s condition - just its existence.

I should also note that my wife will never allow e to own a 4WD the way you would not want to give a loaded pistol to a monkey. I have little to no fear of road conditions.

Forest Road 68G - which will, actually, bounce you down to the Verde River from Dugas - is high clearance up to the edge of the mesa. I bounced and prodded the poor Cavalier that far in anyways - because that is how my mental disorder manifests. We stopped at the top of the mesa, because the switchbacks going down were CLEARLY 4WD. And my nerves were shot. And we were losing daylight. And this moment of clarity saved certainly both of our lives.

So you know, to continue on the Fossil Creek, you would have to ford the Verde River and drive through the Hot Springs campground to get back to FR 720.

So we camped at the top of Tule Mesa. My hammcok, strung from a huge juniper, swung in the wind as I had nightmares of rocks moving down a roadway in waves like an incoming tide. The wind picked even more, and I had to move into Ben’s tent.

The next morning, I worked the Cavalier slowly off the mesa, blowing two tires in the process. (Happily, one was just a slow leak). We ended up “backpacking” in a few miles from a spot north of Lake Pleasant.

Ben and I didn’t make it to Fossil Springs until we hkedt for the guidebook about a year ago.

In a few hours, though, we’re going back to Tule Mesa, because I now own a high clearance vehicle.

I left a ratchet strap in that Juniper. Ben wonders if its still there. We’ll let you know.

Not in the Tonto - but this is ostensibly a general hiking blog.

Bear Canyon Lake Campground is located in the Apache Sitgreaves National Forest, near the eponymous lake (actually a reservoir) on top of the Mogollon Rim. It sits just east of center of the Forest Road 300.

No fee.

No host.

No water.

No trash service.

“Rustic” toilets (for some reason the Forest Service feels this to be a reasonable synoym for “vault/composting toilets”, which is a synonym for “pit with toilet seat over hole”.)

And no vehicular access to the lake. A sub parking lot will get you to a half mile switchbacking trail which leads to the lake. That’s a long haul with a canoe over your head, so we left the boats at home.

The “Shoreline Trail” goes from that point upstream, counter-clockwise, south, away from the dam about 1.5 miles. It’s a great little trail: no challenging grades, but enough rocks and other obstacles to keep you awake. A fine adventure for middle-school kids ( I had three in tow - though only Ben went the whole route with me). The pay off at the end is the lush meadow once you find your way across the stream that feeds the resevoir.

The second “Parking Lot” spur leads to a separate lot from the main one, closed most of the time, about a half mile further down the road. There’s also a good geocache along the trail - but be prepared for a short, strenuous bushwhack up the slope to find it.

Also, there is a good, short, unofficial trail following the stream on the far side of the dam. Keep aware for poison ivy, though. By short I mean about a quarter mile.

On weekends this area is popular with anglers, ATV riders, and gun enthusiasts, as there are relatively few restrictions on such activities in this part of the forest compared to the balance of the Rim. So expect a fair amount of noise and garbage.

Our high temp was 74, our low around 40. Good weather for June.

And I slept relatively comfortably in my hammock despite the cold by using an emergency bivy sack to line the bottom of the hammock, thus keeping the wind off my back as I slept. Good down to 40 - but I wouldn’t take it down to freezing.

I may update later with photo links.