[jlb]

My wife and I have a couple of days free in a couple of weeks (july 4th) and are looking to hike into the Blue area for a 20 mile round trip max.
I looked at several routes to the Blue river from The Hanagan Medow area but I am too unfamiliar to know what is best.
Any help would be greatly appreciated..john b

[Grasshopper]

Hello John,

There are many options for two day loop backpacking opportunities in from the Hannagan Meadow area and I am sure that others more familiar with backpacking in the Blue and Black River areas will reply back to you. I just recently returned from 10 days of camping- 5 days of day hiking the areas out of Hannagan Meadow Campground. This great, FREE with well water, A/S Forest Service Campground is a wonderful place to stay @ 9100' elev. the night before you start your backpack in.

In the process of doing my day hikes into the Blue and Bear Wallow Wilderness areas, I did find a GREAT backpacking opportunity that was in the Bear Wallow Wilderness: See my trip log write-up of 6/3/07 for SCHELL CANYON TRAIL. This one would be my choice IF I were going back for a backpack trip with limited time of from 2-3 days IN with having a base camp setup at the spot ~.5mls up the Schell Canyon Tr#316 from the intersection with the Bear Wallow Tr#63. On your second day you guys could dayhike the Bear Wallow Tr#63..and/or..here, where your base camp is located, there is a little used and unmaintained spur canyon that leads up the South Fork of Bear Wallow Creek for more remote exploring! If you don't care for this above mentioned campsite location, then you can continue down to the Bear Wallow Tr#63 and turn Left and continue for other campsite options along the creek on this trail for a total of another 4.5miles to it end at the San Carlos Indian Reservation Boundary...
IF you guys don't have a high-clearance vehicle(ie- std. truck or SUV) and not a passenger car, then you can opt for starting in at the Bear Wallow Tr#63/TH as opposed to starting in at the Rose Springs Tr#309/TH (as suggested in my 6/3/07 write-up)...Be sure to study the elevation +/- (going and coming) of all these trails in the Blue/Black/Bear Wallow Wilderness areas before you discover them AFTER you are there and with 40-50lb packs on your backs.. !
Regards,

[jlb]

thanks for the reply..
Do you have any info on backpacking groups tha allow dogs >? thanks again john bain

[azbackpackr]

I just returned from hiking along the Black River and up Fish Creek. Also hiked from Hannagan Meadow Campground down the Upper Fish Creek trail (which is not marked in the campground, but is right below it.) I have also backpacked the Black River, Fish Creek and Bear Wallow. There aren't a lot of very good loops on that (west) side of 191, but very nice out-and-back hikes do exist.

On the east side of 191 I have dayhiked Grant Creek to Paradise Park and also part of KP Cienega. I think you can make a pretty good loop out of the KP area. Pick up a map and see. From down along the Blue I have hiked up Lanphier Canyon to Telephone Ridge. Not much water, hot, very dry, a few springs. Largo Canyon usually has water, though.

I don't recommend taking a dog to Bear Wallow! It is FULL of poison oak, and the oil from the leaves will get all over your dog's fur, and then all over you when you pet the dog. And a few days later you will have a nasty rash. And the dog can get the rash too, on its nose, lips and in its eyes. Fish Creek and the Black River are also full of poison oak. KP Cienega trail did not seem to have any. I only hiked two miles of it this past Sunday. I am going to backpack it in July, but not all the way to the Blue River.

It is very hot at the Blue River, over 100 degrees in summer. If you don't mind this, well, fine, but I do. It gets warm down on the Black River too, but not as. It was about 95 while we hiked there this past weekend. You can always cool off in the water, though.

I did not like the Hannagan Meadow Campground, unlike our friend up the thread. I stayed there only a couple of hours until my friends had arrived, and then we left to find a dispersed campsite. Dispersed camping is allowed all around that area. But that's just me, I detest campgrounds. It would have been better if there weren't so many people there with generators and stereos. Sheesh! I think when "Grasshopper" was there it wasn't full, though. The host there is very nice and helpful, by the way. He doesn't know a lot about the area, though.