Passage 20, Mills Ridge Trailhead to Roosvelt Lake

[groovenut]

I'm reaching out to the forum to see if anyone has been on this passage recently. I'm starting at Mills Ridge Trail head and hiking down to Roosevelt Lake on the AZ trail. Is there a decent place to set up camp about halfway down? I know there is no water, am prepared for that. How good/bad is FR429. I have high clearance and Awd. thanks.

[chumley]

The road is fine for high clearance. I think many sedans can even make it up there.

@Friendofthundergod and @Bifrost just went through there a few weeks ago and can tell you how the trail is. It's only 6 miles from Mills Ridge to the bridge ... you are looking to do an overnight ~3 miles down?

[FOTG]

@groovenut
Road is fine to TH, the person who met us with resupply took a car to TH. There will be a few areas along the route to camp, of course dry as you noted, but I was also wondering about what Chumley said, that is only about a 5.5. mile to 6 mile stretch..hiking down hill you are probably only looking at a few hours of trail time, meaning tons of time at camp...But you will def. catch some nice sunrises or sets if that is what you are going for...

[ttretta]

Was there a couple of weeks back - very exposed, not a lot of cover, but there is a spot right around mile 354 that crosses a wash and offers a little bit of green. All the pretty stuff and water is nobo from Mill Ridge Trailhead. El Oso road is also very car friendly. May I suggest SOBO from Pigeon Springs Trailhead to Mills Ridge Trailhead to offer you a lot more options/scenery/water?

[groovenut]

Thanks to everyone for the responses. We had an awesome trip this weekend. As @Chumley and @friendofThundergod stated, FR429 is fine. Actually better than fine, it was in really good shape. No need for 4WD or AWD and high clearance at all. There is one spot about .2 mile from the trailhead that requires caution in a regular car. We only saw one other car on the road and it was a Nissan Versa. My Subaru had no issues with it at all. The vineyard trail #131 is in good shape as well. Easy to follow, although it doesn't look like it gets much use. We ran into a pair of northbounders on Saturday afternoon near the TH, but those were the only folks we saw. We camped at the crossing of FR336. We were hoping to make another mile or so, but the big wide, flat area, with a pre-existing fire ring convinced us to stop there. Its a perfect spot to camp. The rest of the hike was a little more difficult than we expected, but totally worth it. The views from the top of the "hills" of the lake and the damn, and 4 peaks are not to be missed. The decent down to the lake was the hardest part of the trip. Overall, a really good time, I nice section if you are looking for a 6+ mile day hike or a short backpack.

[FOTG]

@groovenut
Happy to hear you had a good time...now its time for the obligatory and if you get a chance, jot down some of the notes from your nice weekend and put them in a triplog for others to read, research and enjoy...

you can simply copy/paste your text
just click post at the top of http://hikearizona.com/decoder.php?ZTN=2434