Boulder Canyon TH to Tortilla TH, AZ

Overview
A point-to-point (one-way) route that utilizes several of the Superstition Wilderness' beneficially associated northwest side trails. Requiring a shuttle to complete, it just seems to make more sense to set the pickup location first on the east side at the Tortilla Trailhead FS #213, before the Apache Trail SR 88 becomes congested later in the afternoon. It's also tougher from west to east.


Hike
The official route begins at Canyon Lake Marina, east of the La Barge Creek bridge, and follows the whole Boulder Canyon Trail #103, two separate sections of the Dutchman Trail #104, the complete Bull Pass Trail #129, a Charlebois Spring side trip, all of the Peters Trail #105 and finishes on the Tortilla Well road (where it's possible to cut three miles of hiking from the route, if a shuttle has been setup there with two capable 4x4 vehicles). An alternative is substituting the Calvary Trail #239 for Bull Pass.Several good add-ons are possible from this route, depending on the amount of extra time one has planned. Some of these obvious options are: Battleship Mountain, Black Top Mesa, Bull Pass Ridge, Black Mountain 3707, the Peter's Mesa highpoints, and/or Fish Mesa.

Synopsis
The first half (~ eleven miles) of the route is really tame by Supes' standards. But once leaving the Dutchman Trail south of Charlebois Spring and ascending the Peters Trail, the route becomes much more obscure, prickly, and wild until about reaching Indian Spring. The symbiosis of these two vastly different route sections hopefully will help strengthen your social well-being. Or you might end up feeling parasitized?!

2024-03-01 pseudalpine