As @xsproutx mentioned, I have worked on the South Fork Trail with my Wild Arizona crews, and we completed restoration of the trail through to the top in the spring of 2023. I have not, however, been back up there since. I know there has been some volunteer effort to continue maintaining the upper p...

I work in trails and conservation, and sleep in my down quilt 200+ nights a year. I generally go to sleep in the dirty work clothes I have. I have never washed it, though does occasionally get soaked from rain, etc., and have to get dried out with a dryer. More often than not it dries again naturall...

I bought a NeoAir in 2015 and this has happened twice so far. Both times replaced for free under warranty.

@jacobemerick And thank you for your guides on HikeArizona to many of the trails in remote Wilderness areas across the state. I've used them to stay on course when all else failed in numerous places over the years while doing trail assessment work, especially in the Mazatzals. Reading a detailed na...

I've been using a NeoAir Xlite exclusively for backpacking since 2015. I warrantied it once in 2019 after a baffle blew inside and it developed a massive leak. But I use it year around for work, probably 120 – 160 nights a year, down to at least 16° several times so far.

For me it's gone the other way, though mostly due to an exchange of fat —> muscle. I work full time on a field crew (mostly trailwork, but other conservation projects as well) and while for me hiking and backpacking didn't make as much long-term difference on my weight, I went from a baseline of 145...

I was working in this area doing trail assessment in October 2021 and I believe there was a sign a little bit northbound along the West Divide from the Field Canyon Trail that identified a short spur trail to a high point as the "Old Tent Lookout".

Southern Arizona just got a massive amount of rain in the past week, and even before that I was seeing a large amount of water coming over Winn Falls (which is on the Cima Creek drainage) about two weeks ago. I suspect there's water flowing even as high as Cima Cabin, and if not it'll be close by. T...

I've been hiking and working in the Chiricahuas very regularly for the past 10 years and I've encountered drug smugglers twice in that time. They're certainly out there, but not as active as they once were, and don't want to mess with hikers or draw attention to themselves. Some groups have a lead s...

Green Trails doesn't field check all the data in their maps and uses inaccurate USFS GIS data for areas they don't ground truth, as well as introducing new errors into their maps in some cases, based on the ones that I've looked at in areas I'm extremely familiar with. They also try to "pay&quo...

@RedRoxx44
Fires are typically named by the lookout who calls it in, dispatcher who receives a report, or first responder on scene, usually by finding a nearby named landmark.

I have a 2006 LJ with 104,000 miles. I'm replacing all the ball joints, tie rod ends, front axle bearings/hubs, and front axle u-joints this week and hope that will help tighten up the steering, which has gotten a bit looser recently. Will probably do control arms soon, too, as the bushings are visi...

@SAMBA This was bipartisan legislation that has been widely praised and passed both the Senate and House by a wide margin. The President signed it into law, but this wasn't his action, it was an act of Congress. It's not perfect, but it does include extensive new public lands protections and expans...

Pinery Fire in the Chiricahuas: https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/5795

No. If approaching Roger's Trough from the west, the turnoff to the trailhead is before the bypass route. If approaching from the east, there is a bypass around the gated section.

Backpacking in towards Chiricahua Peak and setting up camp at Aspen Saddle works pretty well, with proximity to Headquarters Spring (wasn't flowing into the springbox very well last I saw it), Ojo Agua Fria (a bit of a far descent to get to on a faint trail), and Eagle Spring (probably the best bet)...

Had half an hour or so of light rain in parts of the Chiricahuas today.

Rained over 1/2" outside of Portal overnight and dropped snow on the Chiricahuas down to around 6,000'.

@kiki It's fairly straightforward to get to Brad's Water. From the Red Tanks Trail, go up Brad's Canyon for about a third of a mile and head roughly northeast in the direction of a small saddle. There are game trails to the actual hole dug into the ground (it's a mine adit that presumably hit groun...

Why not https://hikearizona.com/dexcoder.php?PID=589258 rather than LaBarge #2? Haven't been to LaBarge #2, but Brad's Water had a huge amount of water several weeks ago.