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| | | Forest Road 1938 - Sierra Ancha, AZ | | | |
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Forest Road 1938 - Sierra Ancha, AZ
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| Hiking | 6.60 Miles |
1,717 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.60 Miles | 4 Hrs 1 Min | | 1.75 mph |
| 1,717 ft AEG | 15 Mns Break | 20 LBS Pack | | |
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| no partners | | For an upcoming car camping/backpacking trip to the Del Shay Cabin area I researched approaches from north and south. It appeared I could get much closer driving along Forest Road 1938 from Juniper Mountain so that's what I decided to check out.
The first part wasn't bad but the farther I drove the more the vegetation closed in and soon it was just over ATV-width, which just meant the Cherokee was picking up some serious AZ pin-scraping.
After just five of the expected eight miles the road ended abruptly at a barbed wire fence. Back-tracking a few hundred feet I found a few possible routes, but nothing longer than 50' so I figured it was time to get out and seek it out on foot. I set off with my lopper with hopes of locating a segment of road very close then clearing just enough for a path to drive through. Good thing I packed my CamelBak with everything for a day of hiking because I would need it.
Now the 2012 Forest Service map shows FR1938 making a 3 mile arc from that point until it meets FR894, AND the current Tonto Forest Roads list states it is open and managed for high-clearance vehicles, but for more than two miles it simply does not exist. Based on the vegetation growth where I could locate bits and pieces of it I'd say it hadn't been driven in anywhere from 25 to 50 years. So much for up-to-date FS maps. 
Well, no matter, by time I had gone a half-mile I figured it was not going to be found in any useable form and I set in for the long-haul around the arc. I had thoughts of cutting the corner but I didn't like what I saw there. Plus, being close to Skunk Tank Ridge, a 300' prominence peak, I might as well bag it while I'm passing by.
On two occasions, about a mile apart in the thickest vegetation I scared up an elk. The first one was so big, my first thought was that it was a moose. (Having been up close and personal with moose in Minnesota, Colorado and Alaska I do know what they look like) Unfortunately in both cases even if I had my camera in my hand and turned on all I would have got was a glimpse through the brush. Wow! The noise one made blasting through some dead manzanita... it sounded like a monster truck crushing everything in its path.
After just over 2 miles on foot following the GPS track of old FR1938 I came upon an unused section of road. It didn't make sense to begin with but once I followed it for a while I realized it was the other end of FR1938. Although now I wasn't fighting through brush, walking along the loose roughly-square rocks was no picnic.
](https://hikearizona.com/dex2/images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall")
Once Skunk Tank Ridge was at a 90 degree angle to the road, I set off for the summit. This was one occasion when the GPS (and possibly compass) may not be much help. For whatever reason (magnetic anomaly?) the compass points were so erratic it seemed north was in every direction. With enough trees so close no landmark far enough away to use for orienteering so relied on just going a certain distance then looking at my progress along my planned GPS route. (I've run into this issue only once in the past, about 7 years ago in the San Tan Mountains) Looking at my track later it looked like I was drunk...
Must have been the batteries I fed the GPS?? 
Eventually I did reach the summit, but I didn't bother with a 360 photo pan or video because all around were simply Juniper trees. I headed to the north in hopes of getting a break in the trees for a view toward Sheep Basin Mountain. There wasn't much to choose from so the first opening I came to I stopped for lunch and a few photos of Sheep Basin Mountain.
I had set a waypoint when I left FR1938 to climb Skunk Tank Ridge, which proved to be fortuitous as once I was just a short distance from the summit, the GPS settled down and I made almost a perfect beeline back to the road. Weird that it was so wild heading north but fine heading south. Oh well, it's probably just another one of those Bermuda Triangle things. 
Back on the road there were still parts where it faded out so I had to stay attentive. Eventually I reached the tee with FR894, which heads down to Del Shay Cabin less than a mile away. Although I was that close to the cabin I did not hike down to it. My intent now was to find a shorter route than what I had just hiked.
Heading back up FR1938 when I reached the most open area I turned south to basically close the loop going along the ridge back toward the car. Finding bit s and pieces of open area I had my hopes of finding a trail of some kind, but NO... once I hit the saddle it was just a bunch of dense vegetation including two of my least favorites... cat's-claw & manzanita!
Thankfully at the last moment before leaving the car I put on my soft-leather chaps, which didn't help with the manzanita but allowed me to walk through the cat's-claw with relative impunity. It helped I was also wearing an almost canvas-weight shirt.
Within a quarter mile of the Cherokee the vegetation closed in so tight I had to constantly back-track to get out of literal dead-ends. Back to the Jeep I had to figure out how to back up far enough to turn around... kind of fun when you can't use the side mirrors (folded in so they would fit between trees) and a spare tire blocking the rear-view mirror. I made it, albeit at the cost of the right front fender flare/mudguard. I couldn't take it completely off without a lot of work so I used bungee cords to hold in place for the drive home. I removed both sides when I got home so now the front tires look like they stick out farther than they actually do... looks a bit more intimidating now. 
Since I was in the area, I decided to see if I could find the missing link in FR416B that we had to backtrack miles on two days ago. Just under 2 miles I found it stopped at a creek where it must have been washed out years ago as I found no trace up the other side. I did get within .5 mile of our turn-around point on Sunday but had no time to check it out on foot. Next time...
I did manage to cause another casualty along FR416B. There were 4 spots where trees had fallen on the road and ATV's had been driving around them. In two spots they went some distance winding a long path before returning to the road, so I thought I'd be nice and removed them. The first three large trees I dragged out of the way went fine, dragging them with a strap in reverse, but when I backed up to get the last one (because I wanted to drag it farther to block off the side-track) I couldn't see how close I was and BANG, a big branch of the tree punched through the left tail light.
So much for being a nice guy... 
The dealer wants $122 for the tail light assembly but I ordered a cheaper (probably Chinese knockoff) one for $42 from Amazon. Actually it's the same brand as the local parts stores sell for $79 so I think it will work fine.
So... some things expected, some not expected, and some really not expected, but I now have a couple places to camp as well as possibly a one-mile hike to the Del Shay Cabin area. That will give us more time to seek out five rumored ruin sites within a mile-and-a-half radius.
I posted 30 photos here on HAZ, the full set of 48 are here:
http://changephoenix.com/jpserver/web/public/album.php?id=630
Although I had video running for the 5 mile drive on FR1938 and caught a herd of a half-dozen deer crossing in front of me, the road was so rough it wasn't watchable. |
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